Sally

Album: United We Are (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song features vocals by the English musician Harrison. They recorded the track in Ibiza after the pair met on the Mediterranean island.
  • The song is a departure for Hardwell, featuring EDM elements rather than his usual electro house sounds. It was inspired by the Dutch producer's bootleg of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." He told Billboard magazine: "I wanted to do a crossover track with rock and more EDM elements. I think I don't have to explain - but progressive house music is not going to work with rock music. So I wanted to do a really easy, hard-hitting EDM track."
  • Despite the title, Harrison's lyric is not about a girl called Sally. Hardwell explained: "Sally is not a fictive person. Sally is a term in the rock industry that's been used by The Beatles and Eric Clapton, and if he says 'I've been f--king Sally,' he's saying he doesn't give a f--k about what's going on. That's the definition of the song."

    "When he explained this to me, I said maybe it's cool for Hardwell, who's always been seen as that nice and normal guy from Holland, to make something more shocking."

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