For many of us, "Dog Days Are Over" was our introduction to Florence + the Machine, a London-based group led by the spiritually minded singer-songwriter Florence Welch. The song has loads of momentum, making it a striking live song for Welch, who seems to draw energy from the crowd when she performs it. It was released as their second single (following "
Kiss With A Fist") from their debut album,
Lungs.
This paean to the inevitability of happiness was inspired by a
giant text installation called Dog Days Are Over by the artist Ugo Rondinone, which Welch used to see every day riding her bike over Waterloo Bridge. Florence told
Mojo magazine April 2012 about the rainbow-hued text: "It was plastered over the south Bank in London for six months and I rode past it on my bike every day. It's a reference to the dog star, Sirius: when it was closest to the Earth, all the animals would get languid and sleepy; when it moved away, they'd wake up. I've tried to get in touch with him to say thanks."
The instrumentation on this song is really interesting. Those strings at the beginning are a harp, an instrument featured on many early songs by the group. According to Welch, most of the other sounds "came from a tiny Yamaha keyboard." Also, the percussion sound was "hands on the wall while hitting a drum underneath it at the same time and the beat was really accidental" (per an interview with CultureDeluxe). She added to BBC Newsbeat: "It was just a song that I did at my friend's studio in Crystal Palace [south London]. We didn't have any instruments and we were in a studio the size of a loo."
The song got some attention in the UK when it was used in an episode of the Channel 4 teen drama Skins.
"Dog Days Are Over" was released in the UK late in 2008 and peaked there at #89. But on New Year's Eve, 2009, the band performed it on Jools Holland's show, and soon after it was used in promos for the TV debut of Slumdog Millionaire. This sent the song to #23 in January 2010 and helped establish the group in Britain. It took longer for the song to catch on in America, where it went to #21 that October.
Welch told the NME January 10, 2010 that the song's music video was her favorite to date. This was not only "because it was our first, but also because of the people involved. I just made it on a whim. We went down to the woods and we only had one camera. I got my dad to put a clown costume on and my friend's nephew to dress up as the baby clown while we decorated the woods. Dog walkers gave us the weirdest looks. It was really fun."
Before she recorded any music, Welch met Isabella Summer, an aspiring hip-hop DJ from the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh. Summer had access to a studio in Crystal Palace, south London, and the duo began working together, challenging each other to write a song in 10 minutes, or make music that didn't involve guitar, bass or programmed beats. The first songs they co-wrote were this one and "
Between Two Lungs."
Welch told MTV News about the song's music video: "I wanted it to be as artistic as possible. It wasn't about being pretty. I wanted something that was striking and made me look a bit scary."
The song plays in the trailer for Julia Roberts' 2010 Eat Pray Love movie and also in commercials for USA Network's spy drama Covert Affairs.
MTV helped break this song in America. It debuted on the Hot 100 dated September 25, 2010 after Florence + the Machine played the tune at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Welch recalled to Mojo how "Dog Days Are Over" became the breakthrough song she was looking for on her first album: "I was working with a lot of guitarists, and trying to record the beginnings of the first record. And nothing sounded right. It wasn't until I went, just for fun, to Isabella's (Summer's) studio, and we recorded 'Dog Days Are Over…' I did it without any guitar, and it was the first thing that I'd composed myself. There was no motive, or ego. And when I heard it without any guitar, and it was the right sound. It became this big kind of layered opus. And it sounded exciting. The label who were trying to sign me were very confused when they heard it. They said, 'what is this?'"
"Dog Days Are Over" takes center stage in the climactic finale of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. In this pivotal scene, Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper) takes hold of Quill's (Chris Pratt) Zune, and with a swift scroll, he lands on Florence + the Machine's iconic track. As the music starts playing, the Guardians unite in a joyous dance, savoring what appears to be their well-deserved happily ever after.
The song returned to the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart in the week following the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
