"Perfect Day" is a song written by American musician Lou Reed in 1972. It was originally featured on Transformer, Reed's second post-Velvet Underground solo album, and was released as a double A-side single with "Walk on the Wild Side". Its fame was given a boost in the 1990s when it was featured in the 1996 film Trainspotting and after a star-studded version was released as a BBC charity single in 1997, reaching number one in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Norway. Reed re-recorded the song for his 2003 album The Raven. It is Reed's second-most successful solo single.
Recording and composition
The original recording, as with the rest of the Transformer album, was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson (who also wrote the string arrangement and played piano on the track). The song has a sombre vocal delivery and a slow, piano-based instrumental backing.
The song was written after Lou Reed and his then fiancée (later his first wife), Bettye Kronstad, spent a day in Central Park. The lyric is often considered to suggest simple, conventional romantic devotion, possibly alluding to Reed's relationship with Kronstad and Reed's own conflicts with his sexuality, drug use and ego.
Some commentators have further seen the lyrical subtext as displaying Reed's romanticized attitude towards a period of his own addiction to heroin. This popular understanding of the song as an ode to addiction led to its inclusion in the soundtrack for Trainspotting, a film about the lives of heroin addicts. However, this interpretation, according to Reed himself, is "laughable". In an interview in 2000, Reed stated, "No. You're talking to the writer, the person who wrote it. No that's not true. I don't object to that, particularly...whatever you think is perfect. But this guy's vision of a perfect day was the girl, sangria in the park, and then you go home; a perfect day, real simple. I meant just what I said."
Certifications
Live performances and cover versions
In the 1980s, Heaven 17 covered this song on their third B.E.F. album Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One in 1982 with the track credited to lead singer Glenn Gregory, and the early Human League performed it live numerous times, but the first significant cover came in the 1990s.
Duran Duran version
A cover version of "Perfect Day" was the first single from the Duran Duran covers album Thank You (1995). It was released in the United Kingdom on March 13, 1995, by EMI and Capitol Records, and reached number 28 on the UK Singles Chart the same month. The cover was also serviced to US contemporary hit radio on May 23, 1995.
The song featured a then-rare appearance by Duran Duran's first drummer Roger Taylor. He also appeared in the music video and in a promotional appearance on Top of the Pops. The video was filmed in February 1995 by director Nick Egan, and first aired in March. It shows clips of the band performing, interspersed with surreal images.
The single was released in several versions, including numerous different remixes of the title track and other Duran Duran songs. In addition to the single and the Thank You album, the song also appeared in Duran Duran's Singles 1986–1995 box set, released in 2004. On Duran Duran's episode of Behind the Music, Reed described the Duran Duran version as being potentially the best rerecording of any of his songs.
Critical reception
Pete Stanton from Smash Hits gave Duran Duran's version four out of five, writing, "'Perfect Day' just could get everyone excited again. It's a haunting melody with a cheery message like feed animals in the zoo."