Razorlight reveal they wanted to 'give away' song that became number one hit

Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell has revealed the band initially wanted to “give away” their hit song America, which would become their first and only number one single.

To mark the 20th anniversary of their self-titled second album, on which America featured, Borrell and drummer Andy Burrows played an acoustic set at Stereo in London on Wednesday night.

During the performance the pair also shared stories of the band’s history – including how they wanted to sell off one of their best-known songs.

Referencing how Prince wrote Nothing Compares 2 U, which would later become a huge hit for Sinead O’Connor, Borrell said: “At the time I was like, ‘Wouldn’t that be so cool if we wrote this song and we found someone amazing, some artist to do it, and they could go and do this song?’”

Although he said Burrows was not that keen to begin with, they gave America to their music publishers and told them to “shop it around”.

“Go see if you can sell this hit song to somebody. Go give it away, and we’re all being wonderful. Let’s share the music… and nothing happened,” he continued.

While one singer considered picking it up, Borrell said he “tried it and didn’t like it”.

“So six months later, we’ve still, we’ve kind of still got this song, and don’t get me wrong, I love this song… and I go to the rehearsal studio.”

The singer and guitarist then went on to explain he circled back to a riff he had written years earlier, with the band then working on it and developing it into the song they would eventually release.

“Then it all came together in this song,” he said.

“And 20 years later it still feels like a great vibe.”

America was included as the fourth track on Razorlight’s self-titled second album, which was released in 2006.

It became the band’s first and only number one single in the UK and was the country’s 17th best-selling single of that year.

The song also peaked within the top 10 in Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand, and within the top 40 in Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Germany.

Last month the band announced a tour to mark two decades since their second album, which prompted their rise to fame.

The original line-up of Borrell, Burrows, guitarist Bjorn Agren and bassist Carl Dalemo will perform the record in full, including other songs such as In The Morning, Before I Fall To Pieces, and I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got.

The band will kick off the tour with a run of shows in Europe and Australia before heading to the UK and Ireland in November and December, including shows in Glasgow, Newcastle, Wolverhampton and Leeds.

The group will then head to Nottingham, Manchester, London, Bristol and Belfast before concluding the tour in Dublin on December 14.

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