
Common People
Lead vocals: Man
Taal: Engels
"Common People" is een nummer van de Britse alternatieve rockband Pulp, afkomstig van het studioalbum Different Class. Het nummer is in mei 1995 op single uitgebracht en bereikte de tweede plaats in de Britse hitlijst. Ook in Noorwegen en Zweden behaalde het nummer de top 5.
Behalve de versie van Pulp, geniet ook de coverversie van William Shatner en Ben Folds de nodige bekendheid.
"Common People" is Pulps bekendste single en is opgenomen op meer dan zestien compilatiealbums. In 2006 werd een documentaire van een uur over het nummer en de culturele impact ervan uitgezonden op BBC Three. Volgens een overzicht uit 2007 van NME magazine behoort het nummer tot de drie beste "Indie Anthems" aller tijden. In april 2014 werd het nummer door luisteraars van BBC Radio 6 Music verkozen tot het favoriete britpop-nummer aller tijden.
"Common People" is a song by English alternative rock band Pulp, released in May 1995 by Island Records as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Different Class (1995). It reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming a defining track of the Britpop movement as well as Pulp's signature song. In 2014, BBC Radio 6 Music listeners voted it their favourite Britpop song in an online poll. In a 2015 Rolling Stone readers' poll it was voted the greatest Britpop song.
The song is a critique of the wealthy wanting to be "like common people" – ascribing glamour to poverty. This phenomenon is referred to as slumming or "class tourism". The song was written by the band members Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey and Russell Senior. Cocker had conceived the song after meeting a Greek art student while studying at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London (the college and the student feature in the lyrics). He came up with the tune on a Casiotone keyboard he had bought in a music store in Notting Hill, west London.
Justin Myers of the Official Charts Company wrote the song "was typical Pulp – a biting satire of posh people 'roughing it' and acting like tourists by hanging with the "common people". Jarvis delivered his scathing putdown with glee, in an iconic music video, directed by Pedro Romhanyi, featuring actress Sadie Frost as the posh woman on the receiving end of Jarvis' acid tongue." Pulp first performed the song in public during the band's set at the Reading Festival in August 1994. A year later, they performed it at Glastonbury Festival as the headline act. The song has since been covered by various artists. In 2004, a Ben Folds-produced cover version by William Shatner brought "Common People" to new audiences outside Europe.