Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Yello

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Origin
  
Zurich, Switzerland

Associated acts
  
The Residents

Past members
  
Years active
  
1979–present

Website
  
Yello.com

Yello Yello announce first ever live shows and new album Toy

Labels
  
Genres
  
Electronic dance music, Synth-pop, New wave

Awards
  
Echo Award for Lifetime Achievement Award International

Albums
  
Toy, Touch Yello, Solid Pleasure, One Second, Stella

Profiles

Yello limbo official video


Yello is a Swiss electronic band consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank.

Contents

The band is known for their 1985 single "Oh Yeah" which featured in the films Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Secret of My Success, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, K-9, and as the theme song for the character Duffman on The Simpsons.

Yello YELLOcom

Their single "The Race" peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart, and was also featured in the film Nuns on the Run.

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Band history

Yello Yello Discography at Discogs

The band was formed by Boris Blank (keyboards, sampling, percussion, backing vocals) and Carlos Perón (tapes) in the late 1970s. Dieter Meier (vocals, lyrics), a millionaire industrialist and gambler, was brought in when the two founders realised that they needed a singer. The new band name, Yello, was chosen as a pun based on a comment made by Meier, "a yelled Hello".

Yello Yello Liquid Lies 2010 YouTube

Yello's first release was the 1979 single "I.T. Splash". The LP Solid Pleasure, featuring the original short version of "Bostich" (extended to a hit dance single in 1981), was released in November 1980.

In 2005, Yello re-released their early albums Solid Pleasure, Claro Que Si, You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess, Stella, One Second, and Flag, all with rare bonus tracks, as part of the Yello Remaster Series.

A documentary on Yello, Electro Pop made in Switzerland, directed by Anka Schmid, was premiered at the Riff Raff cinema in Zürich in September 2005.

Yello was commissioned to produce music for the launch of the Audi A5 at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2007 and for the Audi A5 commercial in May 2007.

Musical style

Yello's sound is mainly characterised by unusual music samples, a heavy reliance on rhythm and Dieter Meier's dark crooning voice. Yello has been instrumental in spreading and developing the use of sampling, along with Art of Noise, Paul Hardcastle and Depeche Mode, especially in the construction of rhythm tracks, such as one of their signature tunes The Race from 1988.

Boris Blank has taken a couple of vocal turns; on "Swing" (from You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess) and "Blazing Saddles" (from Flag), and guest vocalists have included Rush Winters (the first female diva to be featured on a Yello recording), Billy MacKenzie, Stina Nordenstam, Jade Davies, Shirley Bassey, Heidi Happy and FiFi Rong. The group has shared writing credit with MacKenzie, Winters and Happy.

Yello rarely uses samples from previously released music; nearly every instrument has been sampled and re-engineered by Boris Blank, who over the years has built up an original sample library of over 100,000 named and categorised sounds.

Songs

Oh YeahStella · 1985
The RaceFlag · 1988
BostichSolid Pleasure · 1980

References

Yello Wikipedia