Released: 14th December 1998
Writers: Søren Rasted / Claus Norreen / René Dif
Peak position: #18
Chart run: 18-20-18-29-42-63-71
More than a year after reaching #1 with Barbie Girl, Aqua finally concluded their debut album campaign with the curiously off-brand Good Morning Sunshine.
When Aqua made their (international) debut with Barbie Girl in 1997, few would’ve predicted they’d still be releasing singles from their debut album – Aquarium – at the tail-end of 1998. The group had firmly dispelled any notion that they might be one-hit-wonders in the UK, with follow-ups Doctor Jones and Turn Back Time topping the chart. Even so, it did seem that the album campaign had reached a natural conclusion when My Oh My peaked at #6 in July 1998. Aquarium subsequently exited the album chart after 47 weeks, having sold over half a million copies and, in all likelihood, surpassing even the most optimistic of expectations. Thus, the decision to release Good Morning Sunshine four months later was as unexpected as it was arguably unnecessary since it wouldn’t ever have stood out as a missed opportunity (certainly not ahead of Happy Boys and Girls). Indeed, given this coincided with the 1998 Christmas chart, it doesn’t feel unfairly cynical to suggest the only reason the release might’ve happened at all is because Good Morning Sunshine contains the lyric: “…And the snowflakes arrive” making it – very tenuously – seasonal-themed.
In a broader sense, given this was the seventh single to be taken from Aquarium – though Lollipop (Candyman) and Roses Are Red were only released in certain international territories – there came with it a sense that the album had become exhausted. And that extended quite literally to Aqua, who’d spent the best part of two years relentlessly promoting worldwide. Thus, while it’s no reflection on the song itself, pretty much everything about the way Good Morning Sunshine was executed left the single feeling somewhat disjointed from the rest of the campaign.
All of which doesn’t necessarily do the song justice because while a mid-tempo ballad pushes back against Aqua’s wacky persona, they’d done so – very successfully – once before with Turn Back Time. Thus, Good Morning Sunshine gives the group another chance to show the substance underpinning their material beneath the extravagant concepts they often portrayed. Their lyricism remains vivid and filled with imagery: “When the sun is up, on a clear blue sky, you will act like a lover; when the sky is grey, and the rain comes down, you will run for cover”, but tonally, the delivery is more adult, with a sense of melancholy rippling throughout.
An earlier demo of Good Morning Sunshine – previewed by Claus and Søren in a 1998 documentary (The Aqua Diary) – contained a poppier mix and a more prominent rap from René. However, the finished version is slightly more subdued, with a lilt that feels vaguely descended from Happy Nation-era Ace Of Base. The presence of a Spanish guitar accompaniment never becomes so bombastic that it feels like a light-hearted pastiche; instead, it evokes a warm, wistful haze. At the same time, the yearning in Lene’s voice makes the grammatical imperfections (“When you leave my field, then you’re like the stars, fading away in the horizon; there’s a million streets, leading off the night, waiting for sun to be rising”) sincere and endearing; particularly as she uses more of her lower register, which audibly differentiates this from the group’s character-driven material.
Of the singles Aqua released from Aquarium in the UK, Good Morning Sunshine is the one that most resembles how the group’s dynamic was intended to function at its most fundamental level. René Dif joined as a DJ who rapped over his sets, while Lene was recruited as the lead vocalist. As the album took shape, the material evolved to be more collaborative, and Aqua definitely work best when the pair can go back and forth. However, Good Morning Sunshine sticks more closely to the notion of having Lene and René in defined roles; thus, his input is confined to a somewhat rudimentary rapped verse: (“Hold it right there, let me take a minute of your time, to explain how I feel through these rhymes…”) that never quite manages to find a cohesive flow or reflect the personality he brought to songs like Barbie Girl and Doctor Jones.
Furthermore, for an act who’d demonstrated an immense talent for composing material that delivered relentlessly polished hooks, rhyming ‘feel’ with ‘kill’ typifies the comparative clunkiness of Good Morning Sunshine: “…I do the best I can and believe me if I could, I’ll build you a paradise with these two hands, the top of your skin make my body go numb, I’m thinking to myself, if my dream come true, or is it ‘cos you never give me a chance to tell you how I feel, the moments we had were too precious to kill”. It’s not enough to spoil the track outright – the rap lasts little more than 20 seconds – but does leave the impression that Good Morning Sunshine may be the product of a more formative era in Aqua’s development.
Yet, their confident grasp on crafting quality pop music – which frequently went underappreciated – remains very apparent. Even when Aqua aren’t at their most trademark brash and bombastic, the chorus: “Good morning sunshine, you’re my only light, lying with me by my side, you keep me warm all day, just stay with me; good morning sunshine, be with me all day, just don’t let the rain pass you by, when it’s cloudy or windy, and the snowflakes arrive, you somehow just make me, make me feel I’m alive” is deceptively catchy with a melody that feels immediately and reassuringly familiar. In that respect, while Good Morning Sunshine is unlikely to be among the group’s most-remembered singles, it’s a thoroughly likeable song that shows their value extended far beyond cartoonish gimmicks, however good at them they were.
The music video for Good Morning Sunshine is where this single definitively veers from the visual identity that ran through Aquarium. It primarily comprises a live performance of the song filmed during the group’s 1998 tour, interspersed with footage from behind the scenes. Rather than be synced to the studio version of Good Morning Sunshine, the original live vocals are retained, which is a nice touch as it allows Lene’s natural – deeper – singing voice to be heard. And certainly, the visuals capture the tour’s ambition, with sequences from other songs also included. However, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is still, ultimately, a low-budget, minimum-effort video that does little to sell the qualities of Good Morning Sunshine (and the Arabian Nights-themed outfit worn by Lene is probably a questionable choice, in hindsight). Given the diminishing returns on a fifth single, it’s entirely understandable – nay, sensible – that the label scaled back. Even so, it’s a shame that a campaign with such a strong aesthetic identity closed in a comparatively lacklustre and wholly unrepresentative way.
It wasn’t surprising that Good Morning Sunshine became the lowest-peaking single from Aqua’s debut album when it reached #18 in the UK. Yet, despite faring modestly, the track still spent three weeks in the top 20 (peaking at #18 twice). Indeed, all things considered – being timed to coincide with the Christmas chart, relatively limited promotion, and a modest music video – Good Morning Sunshine did well to maintain Aqua’s run of hits to the extent it did. Even so, what the single represented in broader terms was that the Aquarium campaign had definitively ended; the album didn’t re-enter the chart, and overall, this all felt like a rather curious denouement.
Indeed, Good Morning Sunshine was seemingly so minor that when Aqua released a greatest hits compilation in 2009, they neglected to include it on the tracklist, despite Be A Man – a non-single from Aquarium – appearing (a special edition reissue in Denmark later addressed that oversight, reinstating Good Morning Sunshine over Be A Man). In recent years, however, the song has become a staple of Aqua’s live setlists and deservedly so.
Though it’s questionable what the single added to the group’s repertoire at this stage – other than to compound the exhaustion they were already feeling – the track is, nonetheless, a top 20 hit. And few would have expected that from a fifth single more than a year after Barbie Girl. So, Good Morning Sunshine is a well-earned victory lap, albeit one Aqua might’ve preferred to sit out.
