i could be brown, i could be blue, i could be violet sky (10. 485)

The debut song of the Lebanese-British glam graphic designer rock artist born Michael Holbrook Penninman Jr rose to the top of the UK charts on this day in 2007—after an appearance on the talk show Later… with Jools Holland—and holding number one for five weeks would go on to become the third best-selling single for that year, bested by Amy Winehouse. From his autobiographical musical anthology, “Grace Kelly” references MIKA’s influences (“so I tried a little Freddie”) and is the opening track of his first studio album Life in Cartoon Motion and begins with a exchange of dialogue from the Princess of Monaco’s film The Country Girl. The melody is a reference to the aria “Largo al factotum” that Figaro performs in Rossini’s Barber of Seville.