Get Lucky (Daft Punk song)


"Get Lucky" is a song by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, featuring vocals by Pharrell Williams and co-written by the duo, Williams, and Nile Rodgers. It is the lead single from Daft Punk's fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. Before its release as a single, "Get Lucky" was featured in television advertisements broadcast during Saturday Night Live, after which Rodgers and Williams announced their involvement in the track. Small excerpts also appear throughout the promotional video series The Collaborators.
"Get Lucky" is a disco song with lyrics that, according to Williams, are about the good fortune of connecting with someone, as well as sexual chemistry. After it leaked in mid-April, the single was released as a digital download on 19 April 2013. "Get Lucky" has since received acclaim from critics, and has spawned numerous cover versions and parodies. The single reached the top ten in the music charts of over 32 countries, and has sold more than 9.3 million copies, making it one of the best-selling songs of all time.
The song won awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, during which Stevie Wonder joined Rodgers, Williams and Daft Punk onstage to perform the song.

Production

"Get Lucky" was completed over the course of approximately 18 months. Daft Punk first met Rodgers at a listening party in New York City for the duo's 1997 debut album Homework, and became friends thereafter. The duo acknowledged Chic's influence in the song "Around the World" and had great respect for Rodgers. He noted however that a series of near misses and scheduling conflicts had delayed their chance of collaborating. The duo eventually invited Rodgers to the Random Access Memories sessions at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. This coincidentally was the studio where the first Chic single had been recorded, in the neighborhood in which Rodgers grew up.
After listening to Daft Punk's demo of what would become "Get Lucky", Rodgers asked that all of the elements except the drum track be muted so that he could create a suitable guitar part; he recalled that he experimented until the duo were visibly pleased. Once he completed his contribution, Daft Punk re-recorded the bass part with Nathan East to fit Rodgers' performance. Rodgers further elaborated that, "Everybody else wound up re-playing to me". Mixer and engineer Mick Guzauski recalled that the rhythm guitar fit easily into the production: "I experimented with balancing and other positioning, and working other stuff around it. He didn’t have to be processed – Nile just sounded great the way he is." The song as it appears on the album also features a synthesizer part by Daft Punk, keyboards by Chris Caswell and additional guitar performed by Paul Jackson, Jr.
Williams first heard about the project from Daft Punk "at a Madonna party" and offered his services for a collaboration. He had joked that, "If you just want me to play tambourine, I'll do it." The duo and Williams later met in Paris, where he shared some of his own material; Williams explained that he had been inspired by Rodgers, not knowing that Daft Punk had coincidentally been recording with him. Williams noted that the duo adopted a perfectionist approach during the recording of the vocals for "Get Lucky", as he was asked to perform several takes and multiple instances of specific phrases. As a member of The Neptunes production team, Williams had previously provided a remix of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" that appeared on the 2003 album Daft Club. Daft Punk also served as co-writers and producers for the 2010 single "Hypnotize U" by N.E.R.D, Williams's band.

Composition

"Get Lucky" is composed in the key of F minor, in the mode of B dorian and follows the chord progression of Bm–D–Fm–E. The song runs at common time with a tempo of 116 BPM.
Prior to Rodgers' involvement, the song existed in rough form that centered on Wurlitzer electric piano with Omar Hakim on drums and East performing bass guitar. Rodgers' presence on the completed song consists of two layered guitar parts: One layer features rhythm guitaring while the other is a melodic riff. Rodgers considered the minimal number of layers to be a characteristic of early Chic recordings due to the technical production limitations his band had at the time. Hakim demonstrated that the hi-hat pattern of "Get Lucky" was devised as a way to provide variety whilst maintaining a minimal four on the floor rhythm.
Williams noted that upon returning to the United States after his vocals were recorded, he had "forgotten everything" regarding the composition of "Get Lucky"; he attributed this to jet lag, but jokingly wondered if Daft Punk had tampered with his memory. The duo responded by explaining that Williams's lyrics and performance had come about in a very spontaneous way, which was the likely reason he had trouble recalling the song.
Upon hearing "Get Lucky" later in its developed form, Williams remarked that the music evoked the sense of being on an exotic island during a "peachy color" sunrise. He elaborated that the title does not simply refer to sexual acts, but to the good fortune of meeting with and immediately connecting to someone. Williams' vocal and Daft Punk's vocoder performance jointly span three octaves: D2-D5. Friend and occasional collaborator Chilly Gonzales also observed that Daft Punk had previously used the chord progression in "Around the World" and that the verse, bridge and chorus of "Get Lucky" are largely defined by the melodic phrasing of the vocal.
The duo noted that their own ten-minute remix of "Get Lucky" is more akin to extended mixes of the 1970s and 80s, rather than a conventional reworking. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, Daft Punk appeared on stage with Rodgers, Williams, and Stevie Wonder alongside Random Access Memories session players Hakim, Caswell and Jackson, Jr. Together they performed a medley of "Get Lucky", "Le Freak", "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Another Star", "Lose Yourself to Dance", and "Around the World".

Promotion

"Get Lucky" was first publicly revealed via two 15-second television advertisements on Saturday Night Live. Rodgers announced his contribution to the song shortly afterward, and noted that various fan remixes of the clips have appeared online since the airing. The third trailer, which was shown at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, officially announced Williams's involvement in the song and features Daft Punk, Rodgers, and Williams performing together. The promotional web series The Collaborators featured excerpts of "Get Lucky", culminating in the Williams-focused episode in which the song was first referred to by name.
Days prior to the single release, the song had been leaked and broadcast on various radio stations. In the United Kingdom the song joined the playlists of BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music. Upon the official release, Williams performed "Get Lucky" live for the first time at an HTC One launch party in Brooklyn.
Since the release of "Get Lucky", Daft Punk have encouraged the reworking of their latest musical works and a series of "Get Lucky" remixes have been released from acts such as PV Nova and TBM. A 12" vinyl single was released on 16 July 2013, featuring a ten-minute remix by Daft Punk, the album version and the radio edit. The Daft Punk remix was first released on Spotify and, as of 27 June 2013, was streamed 64 million times. In late June 2013, an unofficial remix album Random Access Memories Memories was released by Darkside, the musical partnership of producer Nicolas Jaar and musician Dave Harrington. Jaar has previously released remixes of Grizzly Bear and Brian Eno.
Rodgers stated in an interview with The Guardian that a video for "Get Lucky" was shot in March 2013 that is distinct from the Coachella trailer, featuring a group of dancing extras. In an interview with French music magazine Rock & Folk in April however, Daft Punk stated that a music video was not part of the immediate promotional plans for the single. A trailer for the official "Get Lucky" remix was released via the Columbia Records YouTube channel on 25 June 2013, featuring a group of dancers. Rodgers later stated that video footage for "Lose Yourself to Dance" had been shot simultaneously with footage for "Get Lucky".
Daft Punk were scheduled to appear on 6 August episode of The Colbert Report to promote Random Access Memories, but were unable to do so because of contractual obligations regarding the duo's future appearance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. According to Stephen Colbert, Daft Punk were unaware of any exclusivity agreement and were halted by MTV executives the morning prior to the taping. Colbert nevertheless performed a pre-recorded elaborate dance number to "Get Lucky" featuring appearances from Hugh Laurie, Jeff Bridges, Jimmy Fallon, The Rockettes, Bryan Cranston, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Charlie Rose and Henry Kissinger. Earlier on the program, Colbert had declared that the song was "The Song of the Summer of the Century".
"Get Lucky" is a featured song in the video game Just Dance 2014 and is also included on the video game soundtrack for NBA 2K14. A remix of the song was also used in the dance number choreographed and performed by the 2013 nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography during the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards.
The song was used in the 2014 films Boyhood and The Inbetweeners 2 and advertisements for the ITV2 reality TV show The Only Way is Essex.
The song was also used in The Simpsons episode "Bull-E".

Critical reception

"Get Lucky" received widespread acclaim from media outlets and music critics. Michael Cragg from The Guardian said the song "eschews the crunching electronics of their last album and the vocoder-lead future-disco of Discovery", and it was the "best thing Pharrell Williams has been involved with for a long time". Pitchfork listed "Get Lucky" as a Best New Track, stating that the song's "real elegance lies in the hands of Nile Rodgers". Lewis Corner from Digital Spy gave the single 5 stars and said although Daft Punk's "creative methods may be unorthodox, the final result is a legal rush we can all enjoy". BBC Radio 1 host Annie Mac played "Get Lucky" on the day of its release, and gave it a positive review. She remarked that Daft Punk are not making electronic dance music, but rather "real music to dance to". Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker wrote that Rodgers' performance in the song was "as close to magic as pop comes." Rolling Stone reviewer Will Hermes giving the song a four-star rating out of five, described it as "an old-school disco jam" and called it "formidable". Amy Sciarretto of PopCrush also welcomed the song, she called it an "intoxicating track" and wrote it "represents all that’s right with electronic music." In Latin America, La X and ONE2FIVE host Uribe Dj played the song in that region. He said "it's the most refreshing vibe you can play on the radio this days... We're lucky! It was worth the wait".
Fellow musicians have also publicly commented on the song. British DJ and producer Norman Cook expressed high praise for the song and stated in an interview with the Daily Star: "I'm so impressed by them. It's a breath of fresh old-skool air". Cook had felt that recent popular electronic dance music had started to become bland and that "Daft Punk have given us all a kick up the arse."
The song broke records with the highest number of plays of any song in a single day on music streaming application Spotify. British journalist Caitlin Moran has speculated that the song's attractiveness is due to its combination of minor chords and regular disco-type "up" beats throughout the song, with the former creating an unresolved feeling. "Get Lucky" was nominated for Best Song of the Summer at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. The song received awards for both Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Record of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. "Get Lucky" was voted the number one song of 2013 in a Digital Spy reader poll.
On 26 January 2014, "Get Lucky" reached #3 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2013, the world's largest musical democracy. The Village Voices Pazz & Jop annual critics' poll ranked "Get Lucky" at number one to find the best music of 2013. The song won Song of the Year at the 2014 BMI London Awards. From over 35 outlets, global critic aggregator Acclaimed Music went on to rank "Get Lucky" the 7th greatest song of the 2010s.

Chart performance

In France, "Get Lucky" debuted at number one on the French Singles Chart on 24 April 2013, becoming Daft Punk's first chart-topping single in their home country since "One More Time" in 2000. The song sold 38,887 copies in three days, making "Get Lucky" the best-selling digital single in a one-week period. In Belgium, where two independent official charts are published weekly, "Get Lucky" entered in the top position on both charts, making it Daft Punk's highest Belgian chart entry ever and their song in the country.
In the United Kingdom, "Get Lucky" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three on 21 April 2013―only 48 hours after its release—selling more than 50,000 copies and becoming Daft Punk's first top ten hit in the UK since "One More Time" in 2000. The song then peaked at number one the following week, with sales of over 155,000 copies, and became Daft Punk's first ever number one single in Britain. The song remained in the top position during the following week, selling over 163,000. "Get Lucky" remained atop the chart for a third and fourth consecutive week, selling over 100,000 copies within each of them. By late May 2013, over 600,000 copies of the song had been sold in just over four weeks and sales had exceeded those of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop", making "Get Lucky" the country's best-selling single of the year thus far.
On 27 June 2013, the Official Charts Company announced that "Get Lucky" had sold over a million copies in the UK; only the 136th single and first released in 2013 to do so. The song was the first involving Daft Punk, Williams or Rodgers to achieve this feat as well as being the second by a French act. Both Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, and Rodgers were impressed by the quick time the single took to cross the million sales barrier. It was the second best-selling song in the UK in 2013, with sales of over 1,308,000, and the most streamed track of 2013 in the UK. As of September 2017, "Get Lucky" has sold 1,471,000 copies in the UK, making it the sixth best-selling single of the 2010s and the eighth best-selling single of the century.
In the United States, the song debuted at number five on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart for the week ending 4 May 2013. By the week ending 25 May, the song had reached the number 2 position and its peak position of number one was eventually reached during the week ending of 1 June 2013 remaining on top for 13 weeks. The song debuted at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 24 April 2013, selling 113,000 downloads—this placement resulted in the song becoming the duo's first ever top 40 hit on the chart. "Get Lucky" eventually peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, behind Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" featuring T.I. and Williams. Since both songs feature Williams, he became the first artist to simultaneously occupy the top two slots of the Billboard Hot 100 chart since 2009, when The Black Eyed Peas achieved the same feat. "Get Lucky" also reached the number one position on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, their first song to achieve this feat since "Face to Face" in 2004. As of April 2014, the song has sold over 3,475,000 copies in the United States, the most for any Daft Punk song.
In Australia, "Get Lucky" debuted at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart on the week ending 5 May 2013. The song is Daft Punk's highest-placing entry on the chart since "One More Time" peaked at number 10 in April 2001. The song attained the top position on the ARIA chart in the second week after its release. The song reached number one on the week ending of 19 May and remained at the position for two more weeks. Besides appearing at 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Daft Punk, Williams, and Rodgers were nominated for Best Song of the Summer, but lost by a very large margin to One Direction's "Best Song Ever".

Cover versions

Numerous cover versions of "Get Lucky" have been published since the single's release. In April 2013, English folk band Daughter recorded an indie version of the song for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. In the same month, Dutch reggae and hip hop band the Postmen recorded an English-language version for Giel Beelen's program on the 3FM radio station. Israeli musician Noy Alooshe made a mashup of the song with Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". The song was also covered by George Barnett, Postmen, Igor Presnyakov, The Stepkids, Sam Sparro and Skylar Grey. In May 2013, Peter Serafinowicz uploaded a video of him, featuring the song. The same month, English bands Peace and the Mystery Jets performed the song together during a concert. Australian band San Cisco recorded a cover version for the radio station Triple J, incorporating slap bass and bongo drums as well as elements of the N.E.R.D song "Hypnotize U". Joe McElderry has performed the song a number of times at his gigs, the first being at London's Pizza Express Jazz Club on 28 May.
The song was covered by British record producer Naughty Boy, for his debut album Hotel Cabana; it features as a bonus track with vocals by Tanika. In June 2013, The Roots covered the song as fictional duo "Black Simon & Garfunkel" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Wilco performed a version at the opening night of the Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, U.S. on 21 June 2013, In July 2013, Florence Welch sang the song in London. Arié Elmaleh, brother of Gad Elmaleh, performed an adapted Dutch version on Le Grand Journal in August 2013. In the same month a Jewish Orthodox organization Aish HaTorah published a Rosh Hashanah's version of this song, called "Get Clarity". In September 2013, Fall Out Boy performed the song during a concert in Uncasville, Connecticut. A reggae cover version was released by Antiguan singer Asher Otto and her band Itchyfeet. Rock band Halestorm recorded a cover for their EP ReAniMate 2.0. Rapper Kellee Maize recorded a cover and remix of and created a video for the song entitled "Do Something". The a cappella group Pentatonix covered the song as part of their tribute to Daft Punk, entitled "Daft Punk", for their extended play album PTX, Vol. II. "Weird Al" Yankovic also covered the song as the last song of his polka medley "NOW That's What I Call Polka!" for his 2014 album Mandatory Fun.
The Russian Interior Ministry choir performed a version of the song in concert in November 2013, and then reprised their performance for the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. In the third series of The Voice, the song was sung by contestant Anna McLuckie, who also played the harp to the song. This video on YouTube went viral, with over 20 million views. In February 2014, Pomplamoose released a Williams-themed cover medley combining "Get Lucky", Daft Punk's "Lose Yourself to Dance" and Williams' "Happy". Russkaja, covered the song for their 2013 EP 'Barada'. The band Walk off the Earth later recorded a cover version of "Get Lucky" with an accompanying video.
In 2015, a cover of the song was released as the debut single by Russian 11-year-old child singer Alisa Kozhikina, the winner of the first season of the Voice Kids Russia and the Russian representative at the 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
For 2017 Bastille Day, a French military band performed a medley of the song along with One More Time and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, for French president Emmanuel Macron and his guest, the American president Donald Trump, at place de la Concorde in Paris.

Formats and track listings

Digital download
  1. "Get Lucky" – 4:07
CD single
  1. "Get Lucky" – 6:08
  2. "Get Lucky" – 4:07
Digital download – remix
  1. "Get Lucky" – 10:33
12" vinyl
Credits adapted from Random Access Memories liner notes.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Belgium 99
Hungary 78
Italy 79
Netherlands 93
Russia Airplay 72
Slovenia 22
US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs 13

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Release history