My Favourite Game

"My Favourite Game" is an alternative rock song written by Peter Svensson and Nina Persson for Swedish band the Cardigans' fourth studio album, Gran Turismo (1998). The song is the album's eighth track and was released as its first single on 14 September 1998. Lyrically, it is about a failing relationship and the attempt made to better the significant other or save people from themselves. "My Favourite Game" found minor international success, reaching number three in Sweden and number 14 in the UK. It also charted within the top 40 in several European countries and New Zealand. While it failed to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 and its radio counterpart, it peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

"My Favourite Game"
Single by the Cardigans
from the album Gran Turismo
B-side
Released14 September 1998 (1998-09-14)[1]
StudioCountry Hell (Skurup, Sweden)
GenreAlternative rock
Length3:36
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
The Cardigans singles chronology
"Your New Cuckoo"
(1997)		 "My Favourite Game"
(1998)		 "Erase/Rewind"
(1999)
Audio sample
The Cardigans - "My Favourite Game"
  • file
  • help
Alternative cover
CD single part 2
Music video
"My Favourite Game" on YouTube

The accompanying music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and features Persson joydriving on a desert road. It caused controversy due to its imagery of car crashes and reckless driving, and resulted it being recut to tone down the violence and appear on music channels. The song is featured in the 1999 video game Gran Turismo 2.[2]

Songwriting, recording and production

"My Favourite Game" was written by guitarist Peter Svensson and lead singer Nina Persson during the recording sessions of the band's fourth studio album Gran Turismo between May and July 1998. The song, like the other songs from the album, was recorded in Tore Johansson's newly developed Country Hell recording studio in Skurup, Sweden.[3] Persson started with the chorus, which "married the music so quickly that you couldn't tear them apart". Afterwards she wrote verses to "give the chorus meaning", which enabled her to "cram in a lot of lyrics into the verses" in contrast to other Cardigans songs with less lyrics such as "Erase/Rewind".[4]

Before recording on the song commenced, Svensson presented the song to producer Tore Johansson by playing the track on acoustic guitar. Although the song was originally taking shape as a slow country/rock shuffle,[5] similar in style to Neil Young's "Old Man",[6] the tempo was doubled upon request of Tore Johansson.[5] Svensson declared that this helped as the band knew the song "was a single, but it wasn't working at first" under "the shuffle beat at half the tempo".[7] It was soon after changing the musical direction of the song when the song's distinctive guitar hook evolved.[3]

Both the drum and guitar parts were recorded in a "'70s-style dry room"[3] while the vocals were recorded in the attic of the studio.[5]

Even though the drums were recorded using analogue tape compression, the rest of the song's production, including the "fat fuzzy bass line" and the coda, was completed using Pro Tools 24.[3]

Structure and lyrics

"My Favourite Game" is an alternative rock song composed in the key of C Minor.[8] It is written in common time and moves at 143 beats per minute.[8] The song is not written in standard verse-chorus form[8] and its instrumentation includes guitar, bass and organ.

The lyrics deal with a failing relationship, summed up by Persson as "fucking up in love", and the subsequent desire to change the loved one "to suit themselves better or save people from themselves".[9] Svensson commented how this concept "isn't always a good idea, like when women stay in a relationship with a man that beats them because they think he'll be better someday".[7] The song is driven by its two-note guitar riff which is the basis of the "electro-rock powerhouse".[6] Its verses are significantly faster than the slow, bass-heavy chorus where the drums run at half-time.[3]

Critical reception

Chuck Taylor of Billboard wrote, "This first single from the Swedish outfit's upcoming fourth studio album, "Gran Turismo", is already gaining ground in the U.K. and looks poised to find favor stateside, first at modern rock, then adult top 40 and triple-A. Don't expect the cutesy overtones of "Lovefool"; this track is consistent with the band's more typical rock-fueled roots. Led by a pumped electric guitar hook, fuzzy bass, and a distinctive, pleading vocal from lead singer Nina Persson, the song effuses an overall groovy vibe that should help its crossover to the mainstream side. This record does take a couple spins to get the overall feel, but it's worth the ride once you give it a whirl around the block."[10]

Chart performance

Worldwide, "My Favourite Game" was the most commercially successful single from Gran Turismo. Peaking at number sixteen in America, it became the album's only single and the band's second single to enter the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks since their breakthrough hit, Lovefool that peaked at number nine. In Sweden, it debuted at number twenty-one on the Swedish Top 100 Singles Chart and peaked at number three in November 1998. It spent at total of eighteen weeks in the chart.[11] In the United Kingdom, it debuted and peaked at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.

Music video

The music video for "My Favourite Game" was directed by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund. It was filmed over a three-day shoot in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California, at a reported cost of £220,000.[12][13] Nina Persson reported on requiring oxygen several times during the shoot, saying the 110 °F (43 °C) temperature was "hot enough for a Swede to fall down."[9]

The video opens with a scene of lead singer Nina Persson, at the side of a desert road, trying to find a suitable rock. Meanwhile, the radio DJ, who is heard from the car radio, warns drivers that desert temperatures are very hot that day so they must remember to drive safely. When Persson finds a rock, she walks over to her car, a dark blue 1974 Cadillac Eldorado convertible,[14] places it on the accelerator to keep the pedal down and drives off as the song begins. During the video, she weaves back and forth onto the wrong side of the road, forcing many other drivers off the road and causing some to crash in the process. At one point in the video, she throws the Felix the Cat stuffed toy out of the car which was then run over by another car. In some versions of the video, the Felix the Cat doll is blurred out. At one stage of the video, she is also depicted using her feet to steer the steering wheel. There is a large and colourful tattoo on Persson's arm that was added for the video which can be seen rubbing off on the car seat as the video progresses. She also drives at pedestrians causing them to jump out of the way while driving through a small town. At the beginning of the last chorus, she turns the car around and drives back down the road where she caused so much destruction. Towards the end of the song, she stands up in the car seat, leaving the car driving seemingly in a steerless mode and heading into a collision course with an oncoming van, containing the other members of the Cardigans, with drummer Bengt Lagerberg as the driver. While the van's occupants react in horror, she calmly stretches out her arms and makes a cruciform for a moment before the two vehicles collide as the song ends. The DJ sounds the State Patrol's warning "on a high-speed out-of-control vehicle on Route 666" and passes on to commercial.

There are four different outcomes of the car crash at the end of the uncensored video. In ending one, Persson's body goes flying out of her car into the air and over the van roof where she is then depicted as being dead on the road. In ending two, she also flies over the van roof, except she tries to pick herself off the ground but gets knocked out by the rock that was used to keep the car pedal down. In ending three, she also flies out of the car and over the van roof except she manages to pick herself up from the ground and walks away from the accident, and wipes the blood away from her face (this version is censored). In ending four, Persson is depicted being decapitated by the top of her car windscreen and a mannequin head is seen in the next shot, rolling along the road. In the fifth edition, it is censored all out, along with the car crashes, and Nina still is in the car, bloodless, driving and nodding along to the radio.

Controversy

The music video caused much controversy when it was first released. Many European channels, including MTV UK, only played an edited version of the video where all of the car crashes and depictions of reckless driving were removed despite director Jonas Åkerlund's attempts to meet the censorship standards by making five differently edited cuts of the video with varying degrees of violence and blood.[15] The reason MTV UK rejected the video was because of fears that the video could encourage joyriding and cause car accidents amongst teenage drivers, so ending five was most played on MTV UK.[16] A more graphic cut was shown on the Cardigans website on a one-time-only basis four days before the single's release.[9] But, in the U.S., the music channels were noticeably less restrictive as many of them either played the completely uncensored version of the video or a slightly censored version with only a few of the car crashes removed.

Despite the controversy, the music video managed to debut at number twenty-nine on MuchMusic's Countdown in October 1998 and peaked at number twenty-three on 27 November.[17][18] Also, the video has appeared on many "Greatest Music Video" lists including ranking at 68 in Slant Magazine's "100 Greatest Music Videos" sharing the position with U.N.K.L.E's "Rabbit in Your Headlights",[19] and ranking 95 in Channel 4's "100 Greatest Pop Videos".[20]

Formats and track listings

All songs were written by Nina Persson and Peter Svensson except "Sick & Tired", written by Magnus Sveningsson and Svensson.

Credits and personnel

The Cardigans

Other personnel
  • Recorded at Country Hell, Skurup, Sweden
  • Producer: Tore Johansson, Peter Collins
  • Engineer: Tore Johansson, Peter Collins, John Holbrook, Janne Waldenmark
  • Assistant engineer: Lars Göransson, Jim Caruana
  • Recording engineer: Tore Johansson
  • audio mixing: Tore Johansson
  • Mixing assistant: Jim Caruana
  • Mastering by: Roger Jonsson

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Sweden (GLF)[42] Gold 15,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[43] Gold 400,000‡

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref(s).
Sweden 14 September 1998 CD Stockholm [1]
United States 28 September 1998
Mercury
Japan 30 September 1998 CD Stockholm [44]
United Kingdom 5 October 1998
  • CD
  • cassette
[1][45]
United States 27 October 1998
Mercury [1]

References
  1. Lofthus, Kai R. (3 October 1998). "Mercury Fosters 'Gran' Int'l Plans for Cardigans Album". Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 40. p. 17.
  2. Fox, Matt (3 January 2013). The Video Games Guide: 1,000+ Arcade, Console and Computer Games, 1962-2012, 2d ed. McFarland & Company. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7864-7257-4. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  3. "Recording The Cardigans 'My Favourite Game". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
  4. Lindvall, Helienne (26 April 2012). "Nina Persson: knitting the Cardigans back together". The Guardian.
  5. Liner album notes from Best Of The Cardigans. January 2008.
  6. "How The Cardigans survived success". BBC News. 3 March 2008. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
  7. Bell, Carrie (5 December 1998). "The Modern Age". Billboard. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
  8. Sheet music for "My Favourite Game". Hal Leonard Publishing. 2005.
  9. Cardigans Don Trip-Hop Trappings For New Album, MTV
  10. Taylor, Chuck (24 October 1998). "Reviews & Previews: Singles" (PDF). Billboard. p. 22. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  11. ""The Cardigans - My Favourite Game" Chart Positions and Trajectories". Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  12. Sveningsson, Magnus. "The Cardigans official website: Ask the Band". Retrieved 16 October 2007.
  13. "Cardigans' Crash Video Banned". NME. Retrieved 29 October 2007.
  14. "The Cardigans: My Favourite Game, 1999". Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  15. "'Cardigans 'Game' video flunks crash test'". USA Today. Friday 16 October 1998.
  16. "Cardigans Banned in the UK?". Chart. 13 October 1998. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  17. "MuchMusic Countdown Chart - October 16, 1998". Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  18. "MuchMusic Countdown Chart - November 27, 1998". Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  19. "Slant Magazine - 100 Greatest Music Videos". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 30 May 2008.
  20. "Channel 4 - 100 Greatest Pop Videos". Retrieved 30 May 2008.
  21. "ariaNET The Chart! Top 100 Singles – Week Commencing 22nd March 1999". Imgur.com (original document published by ARIA). Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  22. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  23. "The Cardigans – My Favourite Game" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  24. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6995." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  25. "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 15, no. 46. 14 November 1998. p. 12. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  26. "The Cardigans – My Favourite Game" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  27. "The Cardigans – My Favourite Game" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  28. "Top National Sellers" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 15, no. 47. 21 November 1998. p. 22. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  29. "Íslenski Listinn (29.10–29.10. 1998)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 30 October 1998. p. 15. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  30. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – My Favourite Game". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  31. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 45, 1998" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  32. "The Cardigans – My Favourite Game" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  33. "The Cardigans – My Favourite Game". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  34. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  35. "The Cardigans – My Favourite Game". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  36. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  37. "The Cardigans Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  38. "Årslista Singlar, 1998" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  39. "Najlepsze single na UK Top 40–1998 wg sprzedaży" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  40. "Most Broadcast of 1999: Airplay Top 50" (PDF). Music Week. 22 January 2000. p. 31. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  41. "1999 – The Year in Music" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 52. 25 December 1999. p. 138. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  42. "Guld- och Platinacertifikat − År 1987−1998" (PDF) (in Swedish). IFPI Sweden. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  43. "British single certifications – Cardigans – My Favourite Game". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  44. "マイ・フェイバリット・ゲーム | カーディガンズ" [My Favourite Game | Cardigans] (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  45. "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 3 October 1998. p. 25. Misprinted as 5 September on source.
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