Ready for the Weekend

Album: Ready for the Weekend (2009)
Charted: 3
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Songfacts®:

  • Harris told The Sun April 10, 2009 about this song: "The hook's sung by a woman called Mary Pearce, who's a diva. She's got this great big voice and it's like a nod to an old dance classic."
  • Dance diva Mary Pearce had previously worked with the likes of Lionel Richie and Chaka Khan, but was hardly a household name when she recorded the hook for this song. Harris pleaded poverty as the explanation why he hooked up with a unfamiliar singer for this song. The Scottish producer explained to Pop Justice: "I wanted someone I could bung £250 to and never hear from again. Royalties are few and far between these days – I just got my iTunes statement through and to be honest with you it doesn't even cover a packet of Fruit Pastilles. I'm on my arse, mate."
  • Harris described this song as his best to date but admitted to Digital Spy that he felt anxious about singing on the verses. The Scottish dance producer explained: "It's not a club tune, but more of a full on pop record - the only one I've done on this album. It's a bit scary to be releasing it because there is a lot of singing involved. But I don't sing the hook, which is great. I've got a big old diva on the hook called Mary Pearce - big in every way - and I really like it, it's my favourite thing that I've done."
  • The chorus features Mary Pearce singing "Oooh, I put on my shoes and I'm ready for the weekend." Harris explained in publicity materials: "Everyone puts on shoes during the course of a night out. I'm uniting all shoe-wearers."
  • Harris performed a version of this song playing a 'humanthesizer,' a device that turns 15 bikini clad models into an instrument, for a publicity stunt. The contraption works thanks to a special body ink that conducts electricity, so when the performers touch the connection it completes a circuit, triggering a sound. The project is the result of collaboration between Harris and students at the Royal College of Art in London. He explained: "The flesh and bones were sent to me by a team of boffins. I took their ideas and decided it should be done by attractive women."

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