110%

Album: Devotion (2012)
Charted: 61
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Jessie Ware wrote this light-hearted upbeat song about dancing with Bristol house producer Julio Bashmore. She told The Guardian that initially things were awkward. "Writing a Pop song was a new thing for both of us, and I started to feel really self-conscious and out of my depth," she admitted. To break the tension, Ware and Bashmore started flicking through a Hip-Hop magazine. Their attention was caught by a striking image of the large Puerto-Rican/American rapper Big Pun sitting on a throne. "I decided, 'Right, I'm going to write a song about a girl trying to get him off his throne and dance'," she said.
  • Repeated throughout the song there is a sample of Big Pun reciting the line, "carving my initials on your forehead" from his track, "The Dream Shatterer." "There was something quite obscene about that line that I kind of wanted to see if I could get away sampling one of the biggest, most beloved rappers on top of this very sweet vocal," Ware recalled to Billboard magazine with a laugh. "It just cuts through and sounds really good with the song."
  • The song's music video was directed by Kate Moross and filmed at Painshill Park, an 18th-century English landscape park located at Cobham, Surrey.
  • The "110%" song title is a playful reference to Big Pun's song "100%"
  • The ethereal love song was re-titled "If You're Never Gonna Move" for its American release. This was due to sample clearance issues with the estate of Big Pun. "We had to be imaginative and change the words. It's annoying but it always happens," Ware told Billboard magazine.
  • Ware told MTV News that it was "odd" that the song had to be retitled and reworked after she couldn't clear the Big Pun sample. "I basically wrote the song based on the idea of trying to get [Big Pun] out of his chair," she said, "and onto the dancefloor... you know, this massive kind of guy who just won't budge, even though you really want him to."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Incongruent Opening Acts

Incongruent Opening ActsSong Writing

Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

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.

David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears

David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & TearsSongwriter Interviews

The longtime BS&T frontman tells the "Spinning Wheel" story, including the line he got from Joni Mitchell.

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"They're Playing My Song

The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."