Goodnight n Go

Album: Sweetener (2018)
Charted: 87
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Songfacts®:

  • Ariana Grande is a big fan of Imogen Heap's experimental, atmospheric music and she invited Heap to perform at the One Love Manchester concert in June 2017. This track is a reworking of Heap's 2005 tune "Goodnight And Go," which appeared on her album Speak For Yourself.
  • The song was produced by Grande's frequent collaborator, Los Angeles-based Tommy "TBHits" Brown. It was one of three tracks he helmed on Sweetener, the other two being "Better Off" and "Pete Davidson."
  • The track originated with Grande performing Imogen Heap's "Goodnight And Go" on tour. She told Brown she really loved the tune and expressed her desire to flip it on her own song. The producer granted her wish and got together with the Social House production duo of Charles Anderson and Michael Foster to create the instrumentation using the Heap track as its basis, after which Grande and her frequent collaborator Victoria Monét penned the lyrics.

    Anderson and Foster worked on their production during a six-hour flight aboard Grande's private jet. "Before we even landed, we played her an idea, and she was like, 'I love this. Let's record it tonight,' " Anderson recalled to Billboard, which is exactly what happened.
  • Imogen Heap first found out Grande was working on the cover of her song when she tweeted her the melody that comes in at the end. She recalled to Billboard that, "it was really beautiful. I was like that's so nice - sounds better than I did."

    Later, the singer's brother Frankie Grande sent Heap a text with the song. She said: "It feels like a gift: when somebody that famous picks up on a song that has had its day and gives it a second life, it's a real gift. I think she's done a lovely version of it. I love that saucy verse she's put in there and twisted it up at the end. What's not to like? Not to get too gross about money, but it's a huge for me to have one track on a big album. One song on her album is like ten of my albums, so it's pretty cool. It's like a gift."
  • This is not the first time that Imogen Heap has been sampled by a major American artist. Back in 2009 Jason DeRulo borrowed from the English singer-songwriter's 2005 single "Hide and Seek" for his debut hit "Whatcha Say."

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