Popcorn (instrumental)



"Popcorn" is an early synthpop instrumental, composed by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 and first appearing on his album Music to Moog By.

The same year it was released and recorded at Audio Fidelity Records label in New York City. The title may refer to the short staccato or sharp "popping" sound used, or to pop music and its being 'corny', i.e., kitschy. The title is generally written as one word, although some single sleeves (such as the one illustrated) present it as two words, "Pop Corn".

In 1972, Hot Butter's rerecording was a huge hit in many countries. "Popcorn" has since been covered by a great number of artists.

Background
Composer Gershon Kingsley (of Perrey and Kingsley) first recorded it for his 1969 album Music to Moog By. In 1971 the song was re-recorded by Kingsley's band First Moog Quartet. Stan Free, member of the First Moog Quartet, rerecorded the instrumental with his band Hot Butter in 1972. The record was one of a rash of Moog synthesizer-based releases that followed the 1968 Billboard pop Top 40 chart success Wendy Carlos had with Switched-On Bach and that characterized electronic music of the mid-1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

There were two 7" covers, both released in 1972 under Musicor Records and Stateside labels.

Hot Butter version
Hot Butter's version became the second primarily electronic-based piece of music to reach the American popular music charts, three years after "The Minotaur" by Dick Hyman & His Electric Eclectics. The Hot Butter recording peaked at no. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and no. 4 on the Easy Listening chart. The single had great success in Australia where it reached no. 1 for 8 weeks. It was also no. 1 in Switzerland, where it topped the chart for 10 weeks and stayed for 17 weeks in the top 10. In Norway, it was no. 1 for 6 weeks and featured for 21 weeks in the top 10. It was also no. 1 in Germany and reached no. 5 on 22 July 1972 in UK and no. 15 in Canada - October 1972. In France, this version of "Popcorn" is the 131st best-selling single of all time, with about 900,000 sales.

Track listings

 * 7" single
 * 1) "Popcorn" – 2:30
 * 2) "At the Movies" – 2:31

Crazy Frog version
In 2005, "Popcorn" was covered by Crazy Frog, and this remixed version was released on 22 August 2005. Jamba! once again arranged the remix, and also marketed it as a ringtone. The song differs from the debut release "Axel F", as it does not contain the trademark "Crazy Frog sound" by Daniel Malmedahl. However, the music video is once again animated computer-generated imagery, produced by Kaktus Film and Erik Wernquist of TurboForce3D.

The single was a hit in various countries, but not as much as Crazy Frog's previous song, "Axel F". It peaked at no. 1 in Belgium, France and New Zealand. In France, the single had its greatest success: it went straight to no. 1 on 24 September 2005, whereby Crazy Frog replaced its own song "Axel F", and stayed at this position for seven weeks. Its best weekly sales were 71,777 in its second week. The single remained for 11 weeks in the top 10, 21 weeks in the top 50 and 27 weeks in the chart. Certified Diamond three months after its release by the SNEP, and as of August 2014, it is the 40th best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 458,000 units sold.

Music video
In the music video for the song, the frog causes chaos at the underwater sea labs of the drones. A shortened version of the video was used for "U Can't Touch This".

Track listings

 * UK
 * 1) "Popcorn" (radio mix)
 * 2) "Popcorn" (radio mix instrumental)
 * 3) "Popcorn" (potatoheadz mix)
 * 4) "Popcorn" (radikal mix)
 * 5) "Popcorn" (resource mix)
 * 6) "Popcorn" (video)


 * Australia
 * 1) "Popcorn" (radio mix)
 * 2) "Popcorn" (potatoheadz mix)
 * 3) "Popcorn" (resource mix)
 * 4) "Who Let the Frog Out?"

Other cover versions
Other cover versions of the song have been recorded, some of which add lyrics (which have been added in at least six languages). Artists who reworked it and made a cover record include:


 * Anarchic System, with vocal version
 * Aphex Twin / Caustic Window
 * Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
 * Bim Skala Bim
 * Denki Groove
 * Electric Coconut (a cover of the Hot Butter version)
 * Fiddler's Green
 * Frederik, "Porno on pop" (2007; Finnish title means "Porn is Pop")
 * Gigi D'Agostino
 * Goodiepal
 * Guru Josh
 * Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
 * Hexstatic (remix)
 * Jack Holiday & Mike Candys
 * James Last
 * Jean Michel Jarre (under the pseudonyms of Pop Corn Orchestra and Jamie Jefferson)
 * Liars
 * Los Pekenikes (Spanish rock band)
 * Margareta Pâslaru
 * Marsheaux
 * Messer Chups
 * Muse
 * Norrie Paramor & the Midland Radio Orchestra
 * Pattie Brooks (disco version as part of a medley that also included "Black Is Black" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye")
 * Ronnie Aldrich
 * Shadmehr Aghili
 * Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
 * Swedish Chef (of The Muppets)
 * The Boomtang Boys
 * The Time Frequency (TTF)
 * Unter Null
 * Vyacheslav Mescherin's Orchestra

In 1988, M&H Band made an uptempo cover of "Popcorn" that has subsequently been misattributed to Kraftwerk. The M&H version is also sometimes misattributed to synthpop artist Jean Michel Jarre. There is also a version circulating on the internet that is claimed to have been made by avant-garde group The Residents even though it sounds vastly different from The Residents' usual experimental sound. This version is actually made by the hard house artists called The Rezidents, hence the confusion between the two.British electronic artist Richard D. James recorded a cover on his EP Joyrex J4 EP under the alias Caustic Window in 1992.

Live performances include that of Muse. The band performed this song live in Teignmouth, UK during their two nights at The Den. The song featured prominent electric guitar along with heavy percussion and bass. A studio version of their cover was released on the 2010 single "Resistance". Faith No More covered the song live in Argentina in The Second Coming Tour.

Other uses of the song
The "Popcorn" melody, played by an ensemble under Meshcherin since 1970, played every Sunday on the first channel of the Soviet television (in "Sportloto" lotto broadcasting). In 1976, the tenth episode of the Soviet animated series Nu, pogodi! included this song as Volk (The Wolf) is chasing Zayats (The Hare) at a construction site. A variation of "Popcorn" was used by WDIV in Detroit, Michigan as background music for the station's Michigan Lottery Lotto drawings during the 1980s.

The song was also featured as the background music in the first version of the 1982 arcade game Pengo, the 1983 IBM PC game Digger, the 1984 Mikro-Gen microcomputer game Pyjamarama, and as one of the background tunes of the 1984 microcomputer game Trollie Wallie. Many cover versions were made on popular home computers such as Atari, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amiga, often by anonymous artists. On 17 September 2007, electropop group Plemo released a free track on micromusic.net based on the original "Popcorn" melody. It includes samples from "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" of the Beastie Boys. Song "Vol. 4" by Ravers Choice (Has also a cut version initially introduced in Dance Dance Revolution, third mix) has portions or fragments of its full uncut based on the song "Popcorn".

The song was used by Neil Cicierega in the song "Floor Corn" on his 2017 mashup album Mouth Moods.