• Source: Shut Up (and Sleep with Me)

"Shut Up (and Sleep with Me)" is a song by German Eurodance artist Sin With Sebastian, released in May 1995 by the Sing Sing label as the lead single from his debut album, Golden Boy (1995). The song features classic opera vocals by singer Donna Lynn Bowers aka Steve. Co-produced by Inga Humpe and Sebastian Roth (real name of SWS), who also wrote it, the song became a Europe-wide hit, reaching number-one in Austria, Finland, Lithuania and Spain. Outside Europe, it also reached number-one in Mexico. It was nominated to the 1996 Echo Awards for the best German dance single and the accompanying music video was directed by Matthias Schweger. The song was included on the soundtrack to the 1997 German film Silvester Countdown and featured in a commercial for Tulipan Condoms.




Chart performance


"Shut Up (and Sleep with Me)" was very successful on the charts all over Europe, peaking at number-one in Austria (7 weeks), Finland, Lithuania and Spain, where it spent five weeks at the top position. In Belgium, the single was a number two hit for four weeks, and entered the top 10 also in Denmark (5), Germany (4), Italy (10), the Netherlands (3), Sweden (3), and Switzerland (6), as well as on the Music & Media Eurochart Hot 100 and MTV's European Top 20, where it reached numbers ten and three, respectively.
In Sin With Sebastian's native Germany, it spent 23 weeks within the German Singles Chart between June and November 1995. Additionally, "Shut Up (and Sleep with Me)" was a top-50 hit in Scotland (49) and the UK. In the latter, it peaked at number 44 in its first week at the UK Singles Chart, on 10 September 1995. On the UK Dance Singles Chart, the song fared better, reaching number 36. Outside Europe, it peaked at number-one in Mexico, number two on the RPM Dance/Urban chart in Canada and number 26 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the US.




Critical reception


Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Here is a novelty number for the Euro-pop twirler in all of us. The vocals are utter camp, lying somewhere between Marc Almond and Jimmy Somerville in style, and the groove is springy and fun." Matthew J. Palm from The Ithaca Journal complimented it as a "stellar example" of the synthesized Europop sound and said it is "almost hypnotic". Simon Price from Melody Maker named it Single of the Week, noting that it "evokes distilled essence of Army of Lovers/'I'm Too Sexy'/Sexus/'Tainted Love'". He concluded, "Exploding, plastic, inevitable." In a separate review, Price praised it as "four minutes of butt-slapping, operatic, Hi-NRG Euro-genius, and an instant Number One in every region of the EU from the naughty north to the sexy south...with the bizarre irony that many millions of our continental comraded didn't even realise what the lyrics were prodding towards."
A reviewer from Music Week gave it four out of five, saying, "This year's red hot record in the European holiday resorts is a feast of sleazy camp. Once heard, never forgotten and, hence, a huge UK hit." James Hyman from the Record Mirror Dance Update commented, "Prize candidate for novelty pop record of the year. With the camp, male monotone title hook added to female operatic vocals of 'you are young, you are free; why don't you sleep with me?', this record's simplicity is further reinforced with a gentle tinkling piano." He also added that the George Morel remix "wisely keeps the vocals and whoops things up into a tamer version of Armand van Helden's 'Witch Doctor'." Another Record Mirror editor, James Hamilton, described it as a "ambivalent sexual proposition lisped through Somerville'ish whinnying".




Music video


The music video for "Shut Up (and Sleep with Me)" was directed by Austrian director Matthias Schweger. Simon Price from Melody Maker said, "You've seen the video. A skinny Romosexual, electric blue, no, shocking pink, no, custard blond hair smeared in the style of the Twenties around a face of bone china, gazing into the camera with kohled eyes and, in perfect TEFL-elocuted Euro-English, imploring you: SHUT UP...AND SLEEP WITH ME." There was also made a similar video for the remix by American DJ and record producer George Morel. It was later made available on YouTube in 2018, and had generated almost four million views as of early 2024.




Track listing






Charts






References

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