Supreme

Album: Sing When You're Winning (2000)
Charted: 4
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is about the pursuit of love. Despite having been in multiple relationships throughout his life, Robbie Williams laments he still hasn't found "a love supreme," with the former Take That member sighing in the song's opening verse: "All the best women are married. All the handsome men are gay."

    Williams' love life was the subject of intense scrutiny in the British press at the time. In the late '90s he broke off an engagement to All Saints member Nicole Appleton, who subsequently went on to marry Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. Williams, meanwhile, was linked to the likes of Australian actress Nicole Kidman and New Zealand model Rachel Hunter before settling down to marry American actress Ayda Field in August 2010.
  • "Supreme" samples the strings from Gloria Gaynor's 1978 hit "I Will Survive." According to Williams, he came up with the idea to use the sample while celebrating New Year's Eve in Switzerland. "I was in this town square for 12 o'clock, and the fireworks go off, and it was wonderful, and I was sober, and it was the best New Year I've ever had," he said. "I'm in the middle of this square, watching them all go mad to that stringline, and I go, 'I'm having that, that's going in a song.'"
  • The music video for "Supreme" is a tribute to the British Formula One racing driver Jackie Stewart. Williams portrays Bob Williams, a fictitious rival driver competing alongside Stewart in the 1969 World Championship. Directed by Vaughan Arnell, the video includes stock footage of Stewart with Williams digitally inserted into a number of scenes. Following several heated battles, Williams ultimately ends up losing the title to Stewart after suffering from a bout of diarrhea and getting locked inside his trailer prior to the final race.
  • Williams recorded the song in swing style for his 2013 album Swings Both Ways, his second swing album, following 2001's Swing When You're Winning.
  • "Supreme" was the third single released from Williams' third album, Sing When You're Winning. The song peaked at #4 in the UK. Williams also recorded several international-language versions, with the French translation of the song peaking at #12 in France.

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