Tick Tock
by Clean Bandit (featuring Mabel & 24kGoldn)

Album: released as a single (2020)
Charted: 8
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Though Clean Bandit's cellist Grace Chatto occasionally sings, the English trio rely on outsiders to be their main vocalists. On this dance pop bop, British singer-songwriter Mabel and American rapper/singer 24kGoldn are their guests.
  • The song has nothing to do with a certain social media ap. Instead, Mabel croons about her infatuation with a guy she can't get out of her mind.

    Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock
    24/7, got you on my mind
    Darling, I don't have the time
    My body wants you night and day


    So fixated is she with the man, she thinks about him 24 hours a day.
  • While Mabel wants her preoccupation with the guy to disappear, 24kGoldn takes a more proactive stance. He invites the girl he's obsessed with to hook up with him: "24/7 I got a place with your name on it."
  • Clean Bandit's Grace Chatto and Jack Patterson wrote the song with Mabel, 24kGoldn and Camille "Kamille" Purcell. Kamille, who also helped pen their UK #1 hit "Solo," is a regular Little Mix collaborator, including on their chart-topping singles "Black Magic" and "Shout Out To My Ex."
  • The five songwriters penned "Tick Tock" just before the 2020 coronavirus quarantine began. Clean Bandit's go-to producer Mark Ralphs ("Rockabye," "Symphony") then helped complete the track.
  • Grace Chatto told The Daily Star's Wired column about the song's inspiration: "We wrote it just before the pandemic and I was feeling a little obsessed with a guy - you know that annoying thing where you don't wanna be obsessed but you are?"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Part of Their World: The Stories and Songs of 13 Disney Princesses

Part of Their World: The Stories and Songs of 13 Disney PrincessesSong Writing

From "Some Day My Prince Will Come" to "Let It Go" - how Disney princess songs (and the women who sing them) have evolved.

Martin Page

Martin PageSongwriter Interviews

With Bernie Taupin, Martin co-wrote the #1 hits "We Built This City" and "These Dreams." After writing the Pretty Woman song for Go West, he had his own hit with "In the House of Stone and Light."

Chris Fehn of Slipknot

Chris Fehn of SlipknotSongwriter Interviews

A drummer for one of the most successful metal bands of the last decade, Chris talks about what it's like writing and performing with Slipknot. Metal-neck is a factor.

George Clinton

George ClintonSongwriter Interviews

When you free your mind, your ass may follow, but you have to make sure someone else doesn't program it while it's wide open.

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in Rock

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in RockSong Writing

We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.

Queen

QueenFact or Fiction

Scaramouch, a hoople and a superhero soundtrack - see if you can spot the real Queen stories.