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Fuck You (CeeLo Green song)

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For other uses, see Fuck You (disambiguation) and FU (disambiguation).
"Fuck You"
Song

"Fuck You" (stylized as "F**k You" or "F**k You!"), also titled "Forget You" or "FU" for edited versions, is a single by American recording artist Cee Lo Green. It was released on August 19, 2010 as the first single from his third studio album, The Lady Killer.

Versions

"Fuck You" was released in various different versions. The version of the song edited to remove profanity, which is broadcast in the music video on UK television stations is called "Forget You", while the UK radio edit is entitled "FU".[1][2] All three versions differ in lyrical content, with "Fuck You" being completely uncensored, "Forget You" only removing major profanities such as "fuck", "shit", "ass", and "nigga", and "FU" censoring all profanities, including those at the start of the bridge. All three versions can be found on iTunes and both "Fuck You" and "Forget You" are included in an extended play, which features the music video and lyric video, and was released on August 19, 2010,[3] whereas "FU" did not appear in the store until September 21.[4] A fourth version of the song, featuring American rapper 50 Cent, was released to iTunes in March 2011. The version was entitled "Fuck You (Heartbreaker)!", and was released only in America. The video for this version of the song incorporates scenes from the original video with extra shots of 50 Cent performing. Cee Lo performed a remix of the song, featuring an all-female backing band named "Scarlet Fever", on the The Colbert Report on November 9, 2010. The remix was entitled "Fuck You (Fox News)". The first full verse of the song was a satirical parody of Fox News Channel controversies.[5] A fifth version of the song, entitled "Thank You", was released on May 9, 2011. The song was re-written with new lyrics as a tribute to firefighters. The lyrics mention that Cee Lo's mother was a firefighter. A new version of the video was released with scenes of Cee Lo visiting a fire station.[6][7]

Inspiration

Cee Lo Green revealed that the song is actually aimed at the music industry itself.[8]

Music video

Initially, a lyric video for "Fuck You" was released to YouTube on August 19, 2010,[9] featuring kinetic typography, with the lyrics of the song appearing on different colored backgrounds with film grain overlaid on the video. The same thing was done in the German and Spanish versions of the video, translating the lyrics, although the vocals remained in English.

The official music video was released on September 1, 2010.[10] The video was directed by Matt Stawski and was filmed at a movie prop diner located in the Sun Valley area of Los Angeles.[10] Taking place in a diner, the video chronicles Cee Lo's misadventures with a girl he has a crush on, known as "The Heartbreaker" throughout the video. In the beginning, a young Cee Lo goes into the diner with his parents and goes up to the Heartbreaker, who is sitting with another boy. He offers to let the Heartbreaker play with his toy garbage truck, but she ignores him and walks away with the other boy, who has a toy Ferrari F40. In his high school years, Cee Lo works at the diner as a chef. He attempts to woo the Heartbreaker with a bouquet of flowers but slips on fries deliberately dropped by another boy. The flowers fly out of his hand and land on a much younger girl's lap. During his college years, Cee Lo studies in the diner with another woman, implied to be his music tutor. He then attempts to woo the Heartbreaker by having the waitress draw a heart-shaped ketchup mark on her hot dog plate, but the Heartbreaker approaches him with a basket of fries and spills them on his shirt, leaving a large ketchup stain on it. Cee Lo then goes through an epiphany in his life and the video fast-forwards to present day, when Cee Lo is now known as "The Lady Killer" and has a fancy Cadillac Eldorado with his backup singers in the back seat. He drives past the diner to find the Heartbreaker working there, sweeping the front entrance while others are dancing behind her. Cee Lo waves at the Heartbreaker before driving away. The final shot is of him waving at the camera and the words "The Lady Killer" appearing on screen, before the shot freezes, thus ending the video.

The radio edit version of the video contains re-shot elements which have been mixed with parts from the original, most notably when Cee Lo is on screen and he is singing alternative lyrics, but he is not shown singing the clean lyrics in the titular chorus. Some parts of the video tend to freeze for a split second when a bowdlerized lyric is being mouthed to prevent the lips from being read. At the start of the uncensored version, the mother of the young Cee Lo can be seen to look very shocked and taps him on the shoulder to make him turn around when he first swears. This does not happen in the censored version.

Commercial performance

In the U.S., the song debuted at No. 69 on Hot Digital Songs and No. 96 on the Billboard Hot 100.[11] The song originally peaked at number 9 in 2010, but following Cee Lo's performance of the song at the 53rd Grammy Awards, "Fuck You" had a resurgence in popularity and climbed back up the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching No. 2 in its 26th chart week (making it one of the slowest climbs ever into the number 2 position). The song remained at No. 2 for four consecutive weeks, kept from the top spot by Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." However, the song did reach No. 1 on American Top 40, knocking off "Born This Way" as it fell to No. 4.[12] In all, the single spent a total of 48 weeks on the Hot 100. It was certified Gold on November 5, 2010.[13]

The week of March 24, 2011, the song was the best-selling song in the USA of 2011, having been sold 1,865,000 times in 2011 only, despite the song never reaching No. 1 and being released in August 2010.[14] In the subsequent week, the song surpassed 2 million copies in sales in 2011 alone, bringing its total to 3,707,000 copies.[15] The week of April 16, 2011, the song topped the Pop Songs radio airplay chart in its 25th week, completing the longest journey to the summit in the ranking's 18-year history.[16] As of April 2013, "Fuck You" had sold over 6 million copies in the U.S..[17]

Critical reception

Jason Lipshutz from Billboard gave "Fuck You" a positive review stating, "it's as sunny as a '60s Motown hit and as expletive-laden as an early Eminem song, a combination that fits the singer's sky-high vocals and offbeat sense of humor well. Over a twinkling piano line, bumping bass and steady percussion, Green shakes off a failed relationship with a gold digger by packing the simple pleasures of old-school soul music into tongue-in-cheek verses and a suitably soaring chorus."[18] Nick Levine of Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars writing: "As its title suggests, 'Fuck You' is essentially a middle finger extending from the fist of a pop single—and a gloriously catchy Motown stomper of a pop single at that."[19]

Accolades

At the 53rd Grammy Awards, "Fuck You" was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and won Best Urban/Alternative Performance. The video was also nominated for Best Short Form Music Video.[20] It was named the #1 song of 2010 by Time, and made the top of Metacritic's users poll.[21][22] In October 2011, NME placed it at number 112 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".[23]

Live performances

Cee Lo toured with an all-female backing band named Scarlet Fever, performing "Fuck You" on Taratata,[24] Reeperbahn Festival,[25][26] Later... with Jools Holland,[27] BBC Radio,[28][29] Late Show with David Letterman,[30] the 19th annual Children in Need telethon, the Christmas edition of BBC One chart show Top of the Pops, Saturday Night Live[31][32] and many other venues. Cee Lo also performed February 13, 2011, at the 53rd Grammy Awards with Gwyneth Paltrow and several puppets provided by The Jim Henson Company.[33] On February 15, he sang at the 2011 BRIT Awards alongside Paloma Faith.[34] On August 14, Cee Lo sang at WWE's 2011 SummerSlam pay-per-view in Los Angeles, with the addition of WWE Divas dancing to "Fuck You" at the event's venue.

Track listings

  1. "FU" (clean version) - 3:42
  2. "FU" (semi-clean version) - 3:42
  • Fuck You
CD Single
  1. "Georgia" – 3:46
Maxi-Single
  1. "Asshole!" – 3:42
  2. "Forget You" – 3:42
  3. "Forget You" (Le Castle Vania remix) – 4:38
  4. "Georgia" – 3:46


Digital Single[36][37]
  1. "Fuck You" – 3:42
  2. "Forget You" – 3:42
  3. "Fuck You" (video) – 3:42
  4. "Fuck You" (lyric video) – 3:42
12" Vinyl single
  1. "Fuck You" - 3:42
  2. "Bitch face

(Instrumental) - 3:42

  • Thank You
  1. "Thank You" - 4:01

Charts and certifications

Cover versions and media appearences

  • The contestants of the seventh series of British TV talent contest The X Factor performed the "Forget You" version of the song on the episode broadcast on 24 October 2010. Cee Lo's response was, "I saw it; I thought it was cool."[77]
  • The song was included in the November 16, 2010 episode of Glee, "The Substitute", whereon Gwyneth Paltrow sang lead, and was included in the soundtrack album "Glee: The Music, Volume 4". Paltrow later dueted the 'clean' version of the song with Cee-Lo (with a puppet ensemble playing backup) on the 2011 Grammy Awards.
  • Swedish sleaze metal band Vains Of Jenna covered "Fuck You" with a drastically different sounding arrangement, on their 2011 covers album Reversed Tripped. The Vains Of Jenna version incorporates Rod Stewart's classic "Maggie May" on the bridge ("Maggie May" the same chord structure as "Fuck You"). The band only uses the first verse and the chorus lyrics from "Fuck You", leaving out the 2nd verse, bridge, and ending from the Cee Lo Green version. The song was the only single from their covers album, and has a music video which features the band in glowing body paint. "Fuck You" was Vains Of Jenna's last official single, prior to their 2012 breakup.
  • The song was remixed by the band Modestep and released for free on their soundcloud, simply titled "Fuck You (Modestep Remix)", the band play it live.
  • In the 2011 film The Muppets, Camilla and the chickens sung a version of the song in which they said only "Bok!"
  • In Season 12 of the American Dancing with the Stars. Kirstie Alley & Maksim Chmerkovskiy danced a Cha-Cha-Cha to "Forget You" sung by the house singers in week 1 & week 10 of competition.
  • Sleeping with Sirens covered "Fuck You" on the album Punk Goes Pop 4.
  • Mexican musical trio, Vazquez Sounds, covered "Forget You".[78] Their version of the song was certified gold in Mexico.[79]
  • Chiptune artist Inverse Phase parodied "Fuck You" on an 8-bit Nintendo. The changed lyrics depict the forlorn NES singing to its owner who had forsaken it for a Sega Genesis. An accompanying video used an intro sequence to display the "sung" lyrics.[80]
  • The Cleveland Show covered the chorus of "Fuck You" in the episode "Til Deaf." Principle Faquardt and his band "The Fluffers" performed the song in a barbershop style.
  • In the third season of The Sing Off, the winning group Pentatonix sang a "mastermix" of Since U Been Gone and "Forget You". All three judges were impressed with Ben Folds commenting "You guys gave voices to the instruments" while Shawn Stockman, praising the rhythm and percussion section, renamed Kevin and Avi "Meat and Potatoes".[81]
  • In Chile, the song was featured intro and promo of Zona Latina's No Eres Tu, Soy Yo

Release history

Region Date Format Label
United States August 19, 2010 CD single Elektra
United Kingdom October 4, 2010[82]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Cee Lo's Viral Hit: Blunt and Sweet". All Things Considered. NPR. August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  2. ^ Brown, Damon (August 30, 2010). "Cee Lo's YouTube hit you won't hear on radio". CNN. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
  3. ^ "F**k You - Deluxe Single by Cee Lo Green - Download F**k You - Deluxe Single on iTunes". Itunes.apple.com. 2010-09-07. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  4. ^ "FU - Single by Cee Lo Green - Download FU - Single on iTunes". Itunes.apple.com. 2010-09-28. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  5. ^ Ward, Kate (November 10, 2010). "Cee-Lo Green swaps 'Fox News' for 'F--k You' on 'Colbert'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 6, 2011. Saw you driving 'round town with the girl I love on Fox News / Didn't see one politician that wasn't corrupt on the Fox News, and I get the blues / The poor get poorer, the rich get richer / Ain't that some s— / I'm having pains in my chest because I'm so stressed over Fox News. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Cee Lo Turns 'Forget You' Into 'Thank You'". May 9, 2011. Retrieved May 9, 2011. It's a very noble cause, and I connect with it very, very personally because my mother was a fireman as well — one of the first black female firemen in Atlanta, Georgia, so quite a historic accomplishment.
  7. ^ Gonzalez, Sandra (May 9, 2011). "Cee Lo adapts 'Forget You' for ode to firefighters. Now this is a tribute!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 12, 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Cee-Lo Green Video Interview on NMV.COM
  9. ^ Green, Cee Lo (2010-08-19). "Cee Lo Green - FUCK YOU". YouTube. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  10. ^ a b Green, Cee Lo (2010-09-01). "Cee Lo Green - FUCK YOU (Official Video)". YouTube. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  11. ^ "Cee Lo: I Wanted to 'Rock the Boat' with 'F**k You'". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
  12. ^ "Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' Grows Atop Grammy-Fueled Hot 100". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
  13. ^ a b "RIAA Gold & Platinum - Cee Lo". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
  14. ^ "Week Ending March 20, 2011: Songs: The Chris Brown Matter - Chart Watch". New.music.yahoo.com. 2011-03-23. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
  15. ^ "Week Ending March 27, 2011: Songs: Katy Moves Up - Chart Watch". New.music.yahoo.com. 2011-03-30. Retrieved 2011-04-03.
  16. ^ "The Year in Chart Headlines, Part 1". Billboard. 2011-12-27. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  17. ^ Paul Grein (April 10, 2013). "Week Ending April 7, 2013. Songs: Discount Helps Bruno Reach #1". Yahoo Music (Chart Watch). Retrieved April 10, 2013.
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  19. ^ Levine, Nick (5 October 2010). "Music - Singles Review - Cee Lo Green: 'F**k You' - Digital Spy". Digital Spy. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
  20. ^ National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (2010-12-01). "53rd Annual Grammy Awards: Final Nominations List" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-12-02.
  21. ^ by J-23 (2010-12-10). "Kanye West, Big Boi, Drake Make Time Magazine's Top 10 Albums | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales". HipHopDX. Retrieved 2011-01-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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  23. ^ "150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years". Nme.Com. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  24. ^ "Taratata N°369". Taratata. Air Productions. September 21, 2010. Retrieved 2011-04-01.
  25. ^ "Der Kiez rockt". Radio Hamburg. September 25, 2010. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
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  27. ^ "Series 37, Episode 4". Later... with Jools Holland. BBC. October 8, 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
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  32. ^ David, Valerie (January 18, 2011). "Gwyneth Paltrow & Cee Lo Green Are Game for Anything on 'Saturday Night Live'". Retrieved 2011-02-14. Cee Lo did his own version of Robert Palmer on the "Saturday Night Live" stage, singing his hit while being backed up by a girl band dressed in tight, hot pink mini-dresses. The difference between Palmer's models and these sexy gals, however, was that Cee Lo's band "Scarlet Fever" is the real deal, rocking out on their instruments with sass and true talent.
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  34. ^ "Brit awards 2011: Stars walk the red carpet at O2 Arena". Newsbeat. BBC. February 16, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-06.
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  79. ^ "Certificaciones" (in Spanish). Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Type Vazquez Sounds in the box under the ARTISTA column heading and Forget You in the box under the TÍTULO column heading.
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Preceded by
"Written in the Stars" by Tinie Tempah (featuring Eric Turner)
 UK Singles Chart number-one single
10 October 2010 – 23 October 2010 		Succeeded by
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