Giant

Album: 96 Months (2019)
Charted: 2
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song features vocals by the big-voiced British singer-songwriter Rory Graham, AKA, Rag'n'Bone Man. The 2017 BRITs Critics' Choice winner's debut album Human was the fastest-selling album by a male artist in the UK in the 2010s.
  • Rag'n'Bone Man sings on the soulful, triumphant track about a girl whose love for him has made him feel strong.

    You taught me something
    That freedom is ours
    It was you who taught me living is
    Togetherness, togetherness, togetherness


    With his lover's support, Rag'n'Bone Man now feels like a giant.
  • Calvin Harris and Rag'n'Bone Man wrote the horn-laden track with:

    Los Angeles-based songwriter Jamie Hartman, who co-wrote Rag'n'Bone Man's breakthrough single "Human." His other credits include Christina Aguilera's "Army Of Me," Sigrid's "I Don't Want To Know" and Backstreet Boys' "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."

    Drummer Troy Miller, who was an integral part of Amy Winehouse's band for several years. Later he became Laura Mvula's music director and co-produced her record The Dreaming Room, which won Album of the Year at the 2017 Ivor Novello Awards.
  • At 6 feet, 5 inches, Rag 'n' Bone Man is close to being a giant himself, while Calvin Harris is also the same height. However neither are anywhere near being the tallest man of all time in the world. Robert Wadlow (1918-1940), who was 8 feet, eleven inches tall (2.72 meters), holds that record. Here are a few more giant fun facts from The Encyclopedia of Trivia:

    Frederick William I (1688 – 1740), the father of Frederick the Great, had a famous private guard company called the Potsdam Grenadiers. He would bribe, buy or even kidnap any man close to seven feet high to get them for the Grenadiers. Frederick made the giant men marry giant woman so he could “raise” his own giants.

    William Bradley known more commonly as Giant Bradley or the Yorkshire Giant, was born on February 10, 1787. By 18, he had shot up to 7 feet, 8 inches. His teachers punished naughty boys by making Bradley lift them up and put them on high ceiling beams in the classroom until they learned their lesson.

    The tallest woman ever, Zeng Jinlian, was born on June 26, 1964. Jinlian was from the Yujiang village in the Bright Moon Commune, Hunan Province, China. She measured 246.3 cm (8 feet, 1 inch) and suffered from both scoliosis and diabetes.

    7-foot-tall people are so rare that if you know an American man between 20 and 40 who is 7 feet tall, there's a 17% chance he's in the NBA.
  • Writing the song's lyrics about feeling protected has helped Rag'n'Bone Man think differently about his relationship with his own parents.

    "They look after you and do everything for you when you're a kid," he told BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show host Zoe Ball, "and when you get to a certain age, I think it's a beautiful thing to be able to go: 'I've got you know, I can look after you.'"
  • The music licensing and performance rights organization PPL named this the most played and used song in the UK during 2019. The company's yearly charts reveal music usage and airplay data on TV, radio, and public locations such as pubs, clubs, shops and jukeboxes.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot

Jon Foreman of SwitchfootSongwriter Interviews

Switchfoot's frontman and main songwriter on what inspires the songs and how he got the freedom to say exactly what he means.

Bands Named After Real People (Who Aren't In The Band)

Bands Named After Real People (Who Aren't In The Band)Song Writing

How a gym teacher, a janitor, and a junkie became part of some very famous band names.

Tony Joe White

Tony Joe WhiteSongwriter Interviews

The writer of "Rainy Night in Georgia" and "Polk Salad Annie" explains how he cooks up his Louisiana swamp rock.

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Spooner Oldham

Spooner OldhamSongwriter Interviews

His keyboard work helped define the Muscle Shoals sound and make him an integral part of many Neil Young recordings. Spooner is also an accomplished songwriter, whose hits include "I'm Your Puppet" and "Cry Like A Baby."

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up Musicians

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up MusiciansSong Writing

Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.