"Young Folks" is the first single from Peter Bjorn and John's third album, Writer's Block. The single features Victoria Bergsman as a guest vocalist.
Reception
The song first attracted notice on websites such as Myspace and YouTube, and was used in a number of European commercials and television shows. Since mid-2007, the song has earned extensive airplay on American radio, most notably on dance radio outlets like KNHC/Seattle, KNGY/San Francisco and Sirius Satellite's The Beat. It is notable for being a popular song with whistling. The whistling and part of the song have a tune reminiscent of the "oriental riff". The song was ranked #5 on Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Tracks of 2006 list. Pitchfork reviewed the song on 19 July 2006, giving it three out of five stars. The song was also voted #2 in the 2006 NME Track of the Year poll. Planet Sound named this their #2 single of 2006. The song was named the number one song of 2007 according to the iTunes Store. Y-Rock On XPN also named the song #1 of 2007. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 92 on its list 150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years. It was included in Spinner's 10 Best Whistling Parts in Songs. Rolling Stone put the song also on its list of the 15 Best Whistling Songs of All Time. The single was re-released on 17 September 2007, when it reached number 13 in the UK, beating the original chart position of number 33 in 2006.
Music video
The video was directed by Ted Malmros with animation by Graham Samuels. It is featured in the video game SingStar Pop 2, as well as in Lips. The video starts off with Peter and Victoria sitting in a park, on a bench. Peter teaches Victoria how to whistle. Then the video switches over to them both sitting in a bus where the song starts. Throughout the video, scenes of the band playing the song can be seen and eventually the video ends with a big party where everybody "seems to disappear".
Live performances
The group performed the song on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 29 January 2007, and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 18 May 2007,. On 29 September 2007, the band played "Young Folks", with Victoria Bergsman's vocals, on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on BBC1. When the band performed the song at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bergsman's vocals were performed by Bebban Stenborg of Shout Out Louds. On Peter Bjorn and John's 2008 Australian tour, Victoria Bergsman's vocals were performed by Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura.
Track listings
Vinyl release
"Young Folks"
"Ancient Curse"
CD release
"Young Folks"
"Ancient Curse"
"All Those Expectations"
"Young Folks "
In popular culture
"Young Folks" is considered to be one of the most popular songs associated with hipster culture. It has made numerous appearances in media and has also spawned many covers and samples from artists.
English indie rock band The Kooks made a cover of "Young Folks" which is included in a CD album in a special box set issue of the music magazine, NME. This version was featured in Gossip Girls 100th episode.
German singer Nena covered "Young Folks" together with Oliver Pocher and Stephan Remmler in German as "Ich kann nix dafür" for the movie Vollidiot. This version was the 78th best-selling single of 2007 in Germany.
Japanese singer Shugo Tokumaru covered the song in 2006. It was released as a single in Japan and received considerable airplay.
Kanye Westsampled this song for a track by the same name and "Interviews " on his mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing. He was joined by the original artists of it when performing his version live in 2007.
James Blunt covered this song in September 2007 on BBC Radio 1's The Jo Whiley Show and later that month at KLLC's .
In 2011, American band The Holdup made a half cover of the song, renaming it "Young Fools".
