So, for The Song Diaries I’ve created a hybrid of my single and the Larry Levan version. But when I’ve been playing it live more recently I’ve actually got the Larry Levan string arrangement. When I did the single version, it was a lot more pop and synthy. So, I said to the label: ‘I think I’d like to do a cover of this’. One track was a seven-minute version of Cher’s Take Me Home. When I was choosing songs for Read My Lips, I was gigging around doing solo club PAs for Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love), and my tour manager at the time used to play Larry Levan’s Live At The Paradise Garage remix album. I love it! In fact, it’s kind of what started the beginning of my solo career. “Pleasure and pain of the heartbreak, all of that. Like a sweep of everything coming at you all at once. “In disco, the orchestra would be full-on bells and whistles, all emotion. “I think the disco vibe is probably where it came from for me,” Sophie explains. More of an audio memoir than a straight Best Of, The Song Diaries places her voice and songwriting front and centre stage, set against a lush backdrop of new orchestral arrangements.īut where did the philharmonic idea come from? Not classical music, as you might first think, or even the 80s’ lexicon of pop string arrangements.
“I didn’t just say: ‘OK, which are the songs that charted the highest?’ I think it’s got to be more about a shorthand way of saying: ‘these are the songs that tell my story so far’… Sophie Ellis-Bextor is explaining the thinking behind which tracks she’s chosen for a new greatest hits collection. Now it’s time to look back… Written by Ian Peel. It was 20 years ago this summer that Sophie Ellis-Bextor appeared on the front of Melody Maker under the banner “Desperately Seeking Sophie!” and a headline that described her first group as “the best new band in Britain”. In the two decades that have followed she has embraced Euro, disco, baroque and synth-pop.
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