| Electric Avenue | |
| Cover: | Electric Avenue UK single cover.jpg |
| Caption: | UK cover |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Eddy Grant |
| Album: | Killer on the Rampage |
| Released: | 18 April 1983 |
| Recorded: | 1982 |
| Length: | 3:12 (radio edit) 3:47 (album version) 6:20 (extended version) |
| Producer: | Eddy Grant |
"Electric Avenue" is a song by Guyanese-British musician Eddy Grant. Written and produced by Grant, it was released on his 1982 studio album Killer on the Rampage. In the United States, with the help of the MTV music video he made, it was one of the biggest hits of 1983. The song refers to Electric Avenue in London during the 1981 Brixton riot.
The title of the song refers to Electric Avenue in the south London district of Brixton, the first market street to be lit by electricity. According to Grant, he first became aware of the existence of the street during a stint acting at the Black Theatre of Brixton.[1] The area is now known for its high population of Caribbean immigrants. At the beginning of the 1980s, as identified by the Scarman Report, tensions over unemployment, racism and poverty exacerbated by racist policing culminated in the street events now known as the 1981 Brixton riot. Grant, horrified and enraged, wrote and composed a song in response to these events. Shortly after, Grant left the UK to live in Barbados, and his most recent batch of songs was lost during baggage transit. "Electric Avenue" was one of the songs he wrote immediately afterwards to make up for the lost material.[1]
Filmed in Barbados,[1] the song's music video helped it to gain popularity in the United States. In the early years of MTV, the network ran music videos almost exclusively by white artists and was criticized by famous musicians, such as David Bowie, for not having black artists on the network.[2] After Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" aired and was highly successful, MTV scrambled to get other black artists into their rotation. Once "Electric Avenue"'s video aired, it did not take long for the song to climb up to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.[3]
The original B-side to this song was a non-LP track titled "Time Warp", itself a stripped-down instrumental of "Nobody's Got Time", originally released in 1977. The 45 sold more than one million copies in the United States, earning a platinum certification. It was later re-issued with "I Don't Want to Dance" as the flip side. The "Time Warp" track is hailed as pre-dating the house genre by at least seven years, and has become a sought after track by DJs as a "lost" historic track.
In 2001, Peter Black remixed "Electric Avenue" as the "Ringbang Remix", which was released on 28 May 2001.[4] [5] The single featured and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart in June 2001, as well as number 16 on the US Dance Chart.
Grant initially released it as a single in 1983, and it reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1983, Portrait/CBS decided to launch the single in the US, where it spent five weeks at number two on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart[6] and hit number one on Cash Box magazine's chart. It was kept out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 by "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara and later by "Every Breath You Take" by The Police. "Electric Avenue" was a hit on two other US charts: on the soul/R&B chart it went to No. 18,[7] and on the dance charts, it peaked at No. 6.[8] It was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best R&B Song of 1983,[9] but lost to "Billie Jean".
The song was used in adverts for UK electrical brand Currys from 2005 to 2009.
Jamaican singer Bunny Wailer claimed that "Electric Avenue" inspired the song "Electric Boogie", which he wrote for Marcia Griffiths in 1982.[10]
| Chart (1983) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[11] | 2 | |
| France (IFOP)[12] | 37 | |
| South Africa (Springbok Radio)[13] | 9 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100[14] | 2 | |
| US Billboard Hot Black Singles | 18 | |
| US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 6 | |
| US Billboard Top Rock Tracks | 12 | |
| US Cash Box[15] | 1 |
| Chart (2001) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan) | 27 | |
| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[16] | 23 | |
| Ireland Dance (IRMA)[17] | 3 | |
| US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 16 |
| Chart (1983) | Rank | |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[18] [19] | 20 | |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[20] | 46 | |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[21] | 6 | |
| Germany (Official German Charts)[22] | 63 | |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[23] | 76 | |
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[24] | 37 | |
| US Billboard Hot 100[25] | 22 | |
| US Cash Box[26] | 9 |
| Chart (2001) | Rank | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[27] | 122 | |
| UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[28] | 99 |
| Avenues | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Refugee Camp All-Stars featuring Pras and Ky-Mani Marley |
| Released: | 1997 |
| Label: | Motor Music |
In 1997, Refugee Camp All-Stars covered the song for the original soundtrack of the film Money Talks. This version is titled "Avenues" and features Pras and reggae artist Ky-Mani Marley.
| Chart (1997) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[30] | 86 | |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[31] | 69 | |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[32] | 22 |
The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, Doug Ford, declared "Electric Avenue" to be Ontario's new "theme song" and then danced to the song during a visit to Oshawa on May 12, 2023, following a conference where he announced the creation of two new electric GO Transit buses for Oshawa and the Greater Toronto Area. The new buses opened for passengers to ride as of the following Monday.[33]
US president Donald Trump, while running for re-election in 2020, tweeted out a 55-second commercial which used the song as background. Grant sued for copyright infringement as a result.[34] [35] On 15 September 2024, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled Trump had breached Grant's copyright for the song, and is now liable for damages as well as the singer's legal fees.[36]
Like most Grant songs, "Electric Avenue" was not available on music streaming platforms until January 2024, as Grant refused to allow his music onto streaming sites because of his dislike of how the platforms pay artists. The only streaming versions of the song available were cover versions.[37]
