Drive
by Clean Bandit (featuring Topic & Wes Nelson)

Album: yet to be titled (2021)
Charted: 17
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Songfacts®:

  • According to Paul McCartney, the expression "drive my car" was an old blues euphemism for sex, likely due to the gear stick found in automobiles before the introduction of automatic transmission (In Macca's native UK, many cars still have manual transmission). From Prince's "Little Red Corvette" to Rihanna telling her man to "Shut Up And Drive," artists have continued to use the driving/sex allusion as a way of masking a song's true meaning.

    Here, Clean Bandit do their take of the raunchy innuendo, finding "a love that's so right, you can drive all night."
  • That's the UK R&B singer Wes Nelson crooning the lyrics. A producer friend of Clean Bandit introduced them to the "See Nobody" singer. According to the group's Grace Chatto, their engineer said Nelson has the best recording voice she has ever heard.
  • Clean Bandit's Jack Patterson and Grace Chatto co-wrote the energetic dance-pop song with:

    German/Croatian DJ Topic. He is best known for his 2019 international hit "Breaking Me."

    Swedish singer-songwriter Alexander Tidebrink, who performs under the name A7S. He co-wrote 'Breaking Me" with Topic.

    RickyJ (MAS). He also collaborated with British-Norwegian EDM producer Alan Walker on his song "Don't You Hold Me Down."

    Henry Tucker, who also co-wrote Jason DeRulo's track "Acapulco."

    The songwriting and production duo, Saltwives. Their credits include 13 tracks from Zayn's second album, Icarus Falls ("Dusk Till Dawn," "Fingers" among others). They have also worked for Bebe Rexha ("No Broken Hearts") and Nathan Evans ("Wellerman").
  • RickyJ (MAS), Topic, Saltwives, Jack Patterson and Grace Chatto produced the song along with frequent Clean Bandit collaborator Mark Ralph ("Rockabye," "Symphony," "Solo").
  • Dan Massie (Ed Sheeran's "Best Part of Me," Rudimental's "Sun Comes Up") directed the vibrant visual, which stars Wes Nelson as a lorry driver. He performs the song from the cab of his big truck as he embarks on an otherworldly drive through the night. The scenes are intercut with shots of Clean Bandit and various dancers.

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