Songfacts®:

• This is a remake of a 1948 song by Betty Hutton that was written by Hans Lang and Bert Reisfeld. The original is titled "Blow A Fuse."
• This became Björk's biggest hit in the UK. It led to the Icelander's subsequent single releases "Hyperballad" and "Possibly Maybe" also reaching the UK Top 20. Björk later virtually disowned the song by not including it on her 2002 greatest hits album. It is thought that Björk was disappointed that her most popular song is an unusual cover done in a style totally different to anything else she has recorded.
• Björk (Record Collector, August 2002 taken from Björk.com): "It was sort of a joke really. It was a song Guy Sigsworth used to play on the bus when we were touring. Ever since, I almost regret doing it because I wanted to put so much importance on making new music. So many people are doing old music and you've even got new bands doing old music. If I put something out in this world, it would be the courage to go ahead and invent things, so it's ironic 'It's Oh So Quiet' became my biggest song. The best bit was the video."
• The video was directed by Spike Jonze and was inspired by musicals of the '40s-'60s, notably the 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Björk was ill with a fever and could only speak in a whisper during the shoot.
• Keyboardist and programmer Marius De Vries recalled the recording of this track to Uncut magazine: "We booked a three-hour session for It's 'Oh So Quiet.' We wanted to record the vocal live with the orchestra, but Bjork was held up. She turned up with 15 minutes to go, strolled into the vocal booth, and ran it down twice. That was it."