An iPod ad sync launched Feist’s career!
As a daughter of an abstract expressionist university lecturer, Feist’s artistic path was clearly laid out with interests in dance, painting, film, and music. All these elements come together in the music video for 1234.
The video was shot in a single take, giving the choreographed dance a fantastic depth, and turning the sweeping camera motion into a great experience to watch. Ironically the “making of video” is cut like a traditional music video.
Director Patrick Daughters and Choreographer Noemie Lafrance obviously had a huge part in the success of this genius video.
Combined with Feist’s great arrangement and songwriting (co-wrote with Sally Seltmann) 1234 became one of the big songs in 2007 and reached a worldwide audience.
Nominated for 4 Grammy Awards and reaching #17 on Rolling Stones’ “Greatest Songs of 2007”, the tune did stick in everybody’s mind.
In retrospect, the sound of the recording might be seen as representative of the sound of ’07. Retro without any fear of using instruments that a few years earlier might have seemed uncool.
Feist might not have brought back the Banjo, but she certainly did make it fit in a hit.
The success of 1234 is largely linked to the song being featured in the Apple iPod nano ad. Before the worldwide reach of the ad, 1234 had moderate success with 2.000 singles per week, the week after the ad came out, sales rose to 19.000.
Feist could on the back of such a synchronization launch her career on a different level.
In 2009, Feist said that she is taking a short break before the next album will be recorded. With over a million copies sold of The Reminder, critics eagerly awaited the follow-up. iPod Nano ad or not, everyone gave Feist’s follow-up a listen.
In 2011, she released the follow-up Metals, and in 2017 we saw Pleasure hit the shelves. Single One Evening, from Metals, did reasonably well, however, for most, Feist is still synonymous with her tune 1234.
Feist tunes | Related pages
1234
You can learn how to play 1234 by Feist using chords, lyrics, a Spytunes video guitar lesson, chord analysis, and the original recording.
| D D/C# | Bm G |
One, two, three, four, tell me that you love me more…
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