3 A.M. Eternal

Album: The White Room (1991)
Charted: 1 5
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The KLF duo of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty originally recorded this in 1988 and revamped it three years later with DJ and rapper Ricardo Da Force and vocalist Maxine Harvey wailing away. Ricardo Lyte recalled in 1000 UK #1 Hits:

    "I met Bill and Jimmy when I was DJing in Ibiza and I was impressed by how funny they were. We got talking and I liked the way they are quite prepared to use different influences. They liked my rapping and asked me to do some stuff on their album."
  • The title refers to chucking out time at the Spectrum Acid House club in London.
  • This was the first song to reach the Top 40 of the Hot 100 that started with "3." Other songs since that have done so include Alana Davis' 1998 hit, "32 Flavors" and Eminem's 2009 single "3am."
  • This song was part of a big scene at the 1992 Brit Awards. The song starts: "This is radio freedom..." and is followed by the sound of machine gun fire. When The KLF performed this at the awards show, they came on stage with a real machine gun full of blanks and started firing at the audience. The shocked audience didn't realize the gun was actually full of blanks and it caused quite a commotion.

    At the Brit Awards after show party, The KLF left a dead sheep, announcing they were leaving the music industry forever and deleted their entire back catalogue of music to prove it wasn't just a stunt to sell more records. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Darren - Warrington, England
  • The American soul singer PP Arnold sang the hook, but she felt let down by the KLF duo. "I didn't get along with them too well, because when it came to the video, I didn't wanna wear those suits - to me they were a little bit too Kurt Klux Klan," Arnold told Uncut. "So that's why you only see me at the beginning of the video and somewhere at the end. And they only put me in at all because I complained when I turned on Top of the Pops and they had someone else miming to my voice."

    Arnold also claims KLF shortchanged her. "I sang the hook on 3 A.M. Eternal," she told The Guardian. "I was paid a session fee, but the deal was that if they used my solo performance I'd get 5%, which I never got because they claimed it wasn't the song's hook. I've got to let it go now, but it's on their conscience."

Comments: 1

  • Darren from Warrington, EnglandThe rapper that's making the phone call in the video is Ricardo Da Force, he also rapped on a few other KLF songs - Justified & Ancient and Last Train To Trancentral, and then was asked by N-Trance to do some of their songs as they were influenced by The KLF, he raps in N-Trance's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, D.I.S.C.O and Stayin' Alive.

    The song also features a certain artist called Wanda Dee, unfortunatly The KLF sampled her song To The Bone in 3AM Eternal, and since then she has been touring throughout the world using The KLF name, much to the disappointment of many genuine KLF fans.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.