Pop music has a lot of great "what ifs" throughout its history. Like, what if Britney Spears released "Umbrella" instead of Rihanna? Or Kylie Minogue put out "Toxic" instead of Britney? Or Kesha decided to keep "Till The World Ends" rather than giving it to Britney? Okay, maybe Britney Spears needs to write another book on this topic.
The most recently discovered "what if?" involves one of the world's hottest songs: Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder On The Dancefloor," which gained tremendous momentum in December when the song went viral thanks to its use in the film Saltburn.
Originally released in 2001, "Murder On The Dancefloor" was a big hit for Ellis-Bextor everywhere but North America, and is now a legit global smash. However, the song was almost released years before by the band New Radicals. Yeah, that band!
Frontman Gregg Alexander actually wrote "Murder On The Dancefloor" back when he was working on the New Radicals' album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. He would go on to score a sizeable hit with "You Get What You Give" but he almost did put out his version of "Murder On The Dancefloor" first. In fact, he recorded a demo of the song featured slightly different lyrics, which has now been released to the world thanks to the Guardian. (Ellis-Bextor completed the lyrics when she recorded the 2001 version.)
In a recent interview with Variety, Alexander shared the story behind almost keeping the song for himself.
“There are two ‘Murder on the Dancefloors’: New Radicals’ unheard record I gave Sophie an early cassette of, and Sophie’s combining my rough lyrics with her lyrical genius,” Alexander said. “I wrote the music in my old Mustang in the ’90s, pissed my car broke down. It was gonna be New Radicals’ bawdy first single until I came up with ‘You Get What You Give.’ I dug both equally but spent so much producing this ‘music in you’ idea I worried I’d go broke finishing ‘Murder,’ too."
Alexander believes he did the right thing in giving the song to Ellis-Bextor, who transformed the song into a mammoth hit.
"Once Sophie got on mic, her magic owned it," he added. "I’m an artist at heart, but moonlighting, I’ve produced Tina Turner to the Strokes and trust me — Sophie’s that uniquely talented.”
Listen to the newly unearthed demo below.