Tell you what, 2022 truly is the year of unashamedly learning things I probably should already know by now. The other day it was how ceiling fans have a winter mode, and today it’s finding out that Lily Allen once sampled the Neighbours theme song in one of her iconic 2000s hits.
Today’s learning moment comes to us from my housemate who casually walked into the kitchen this morning, dropped this mind-blowing morsel of information, before humming the tune and then leaving me alone and baffled. A powerful and incredible move, and I have to respect it.
The Lily Allen track in question is her 2009 banger ‘Fuck You’ — which also copped a radio edit SOMEHOW — and in particular the little piano melody at the start. Go ahead and have a listen again if you need to remind yourself of the song.
And now, take a run at the Neighbours theme tune – specifically, the old era ones when Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) was in it (the first time), Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) was yet to break our collective hearts by cheating on Susan (Jackie Woodburne) and a fresh-faced Kylie Minogue made her debut as the ever-iconic Charlene Robinson.
That tinkly piano at the start? It’s the same thing, baby.
Granted, I think Lily Allen has bumped the tempo up on the Neighbours sample a little bit, but the notes, the cadence, everything is bang on.
Digging around a little bit to find out exactly how this came to be, I discovered that Lily was actually on an episode of Neighbours in 2009 — the same year she released ‘Fuck You’ and the album it’s featured on, It’s Not Me, It’s You.
So which came first? Well, Lily’s cameo happened in late 2009 — where she cameoed as a guest performer on Zeke Kinski’s (Matthew Werkmeister) community radio show for Pirate Net. Her second studio album was released on February 4, 2009, which would mean she was working on it for most of the year before.
Maybe Lily reached out to Neighbours, Channel Ten (or even Reg Watson himself) to get clearance for the rights and that kicked off the conversation, culminating in her appearing on the show? It is a massive soap over in the UK so it would have been such a monumental moment for her, I reckon.
Either way, what a beautiful little bit of music trivia to tuck away in my brain for probably no reason whatsoever. Love it.
