"Return to Innocence" is a song by German musical groupEnigma. It was released on 4 January 1994 as the lead single from their second album, The Cross of Changes. It became the project's most successful international single after "Sadeness ", reaching number one in over 10 countries, number three on the UK Singles Chart, and the top five in several countries, including Canada, Germany and New Zealand. It also reached the top 20 in France and number two on the Eurochart Hot 100. "Return to Innocence" was the project's biggest hit in the United States, reaching number two on the BillboardModern Rock Tracks chart, number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and number six on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40.
History
The song's melodic and talking vocals in English are provided by Angel X, and a short talking vocal by Sandra, while an Amis people chant is repeated, which opens the song. Difang and Igay Duana, from the Amis, were in a cultural exchange program in Paris in 1988 when their performance of the song was recorded by the Maison des Cultures du Monde and later distributed on CD. The producer of Enigma, Michael Cretu, later obtained the CD and proceeded to sample it. In addition, the drum beat of the song was sampled from the Led Zeppelin song "When the Levee Breaks", played by John Bonham. The song was used to promote several types of media in the mid-1990s, including film and TV commercials. In autumn 1994, the song was featured in an episode of the TV showMy So-Called Life. In 1995, the song was used as the closing theme in Disney's live-action film Man of the House, as well as in the opening and closing of an Outer Limits episode. In 1996, the song was further popularised when it was used in a television advertisement to promote the 1996 Summer Olympics. Julien Temple directed the video, which depicts a man's life in reverse, starting with him dying and ending with his baptism as a baby..
Critical reception
from Billboard wrote that Enigma "resurfaces with a far more accessible, but no less cool pop/hip-hop kicker. The track's insistent beat is good bait for a song that is chock-full of unusual male chants and breathy female vamping. Somewhere between the two is an irresistible hook and melody that assures much-deserved success at both radio and club level." Cashbox noted, "Now, experts at the Virgin Records hitmaking laboratory have concocted a new, even more startling scenario: Enigma as hit song-makers! Wild, but true. The life's work of one Michael Cretu, a zealous Romanian attempting to go where no new age musician has gone before. Enigma is threatening to break free of the genre's tacky shackles, making the world safe for ambient artists everywhere." Jonathan Riggs from Idolator commented, "If all of human existence across time were a movie, "Return to Innocence" is the song that should play over the end credits." He added, ""Return to Innocence" was then and remains now universally epic, instantly recognizable, largely incomprehensible and endlessly moving. Like us. Like life." John Kilgo from The Network Forty described the song as a "melodramatic chant". Richard Paton from Toledo Blade said that it "captures that melange of sounds, the intensity of the beat, and the wafting vocals and chant"
Legal dispute
In March 1998, Difang and Igay Duana sued Cretu, Virgin Records, and a number of recording companies for unauthorised usage of their song without credit. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money and all further releases of the song were credited to the Duanas, aka the Kuos — their Chinese name. The Kuos were an indigenous Taiwanese couple from the Ami tribe. Cretu has stated that he had been led to believe that the recording was in the public domain and that he did not intentionally violate the Kuos' copyright.
