Club Classics

Album: Brat (2024)
Charted: 113
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is a rave-inspired, high-energy track about the sweaty thrills of hitting the town and hearing club classics being played.
  • When Charli XCX goes out, she expects to hear her own records being played as well as those by her crew: her close collaborator A.G. Cook, her fiancé George Daniel, the late DJ Sophie (gone but never forgotten), and the genre-bending Hudson Mohawke.
  • Charli wrote "Club Classics" with George Daniel, who is a founding member and drummer of the band The 1975; he and Charli got married in 2025. Daniel also co-produced the track with A.G. Cook. An English music producer, Cook's fingerprints are all over Charli's past projects Number 1 Angel, Pop 2, Charli and How I'm Feeling Now.
  • Charli released "Club Classics" as a single from her sixth album, Brat. The record evokes the illegal London rave scene where Charli started performing in her early teens.

    "This album is very direct. I'm over the idea of metaphor and flowery lyricism and not saying exactly what I think, the way I would say it to a friend in a text message," she told Billboard. "This record is all the things I would talk about with my friends, said exactly how I would say them. It's in ways very aggressive and confrontational, but also very conversational and personal. And not in that boring way where artists are like, 'This is my most personal record.' To me, it feels like listening to a conversation with a friend."
  • Tight like Mike kinda flow

    Charli shouts out British rapper Mike Skinner, aka The Streets. She also asked him to be on the remix, but Skinner revealed to the Guardian he "wrote some stuff and it wasn't very good, basically! So it never saw the light of day."
  • The song's remix, recorded by Charli for her Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat album, is a bit like bumping into an old friend who's had an extreme makeover. At first listen, the track is nearly unrecognizable, having shed the original's warm, swirling synths and that catchy "put your hands up and dance" chorus that practically begs you to bop along.

    In place of these electro-pop dancefloor-friendly touches, we now have a remix that's stark, staccato and acid-fuelled courtesy of Charli and co-producers, George Daniel and Californian musician TimFromTheHouse (5 Seconds Of Summer's "Complete Mess," Tove Lo's "Grapefruit").

    Enter Spanish rapper bb trickz, who sashays in with a saucy Spanish verse. Bb's presence plunges the new version deeper into a hazy, early-morning vibe.

    The outro for the "Club Classics" remix also contains lyrics from another Brat track, "365."
  • Charli first revealed this new version of "Club Classics" at the Amnesia Club at Ibiza in June 2024.
  • The original version of "Club Classics" failed to chart, but the bb trickz-featuring rendition reached #13 on the Billboard's Bubbling Under the Top 100 chart.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues

Justin Hayward of The Moody BluesSongwriter Interviews

Justin wrote the classic "Nights In White Satin," but his fondest musical memories are from a different decade.

Eric Burdon

Eric BurdonSongwriter Interviews

The renown rock singer talks about "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood."

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.

The Untold Story Of Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine

The Untold Story Of Fiona Apple's Extraordinary MachineSong Writing

Fiona's highly-anticipated third album almost didn't make it. Here's how it finally came together after two years and a leak.

Tony Banks of Genesis

Tony Banks of GenesisSongwriter Interviews

Genesis' key-man re-examines his solo career and the early days of music video.

Leslie West of Mountain

Leslie West of MountainSongwriter Interviews

From the cowbell on "Mississippi Queen" to recording with The Who when they got the wrong Felix, stories from one of rock's master craftsmen.