Most people know Mike Posner’s ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ from the SeeB EDM dance remix, released a year ago, that became a worldwide megahit, rising to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, with over 460,000,000 hits on Youtube.

When I first heard this version, I thought it was OK, but that the production kind of overwhelmed the song. Then I came across Posner’s original version from his album (only 14,000,000 hits; too bad…), and realized what a beautiful song it is. Which led me to appreciate the remix more.

This hit started life on Posner’s album as a humble singer-songwriter-ish ballad (listen below) that, while really great on its own terms, does not have hit written all over it. In fact, although Posner’s voice, delivery, and language are definitely contemporary, overall it’s a very standard, traditional rendition of this kind of song – acoustic guitar, drums, bass, a little keyboards… that’s about it. Solo voice, no background vocals. And I love it… because it’s such a good song, period, and because the it’s such a modern yet utterly sincere take on an old school-type tune.

Many of the virtues of the original are intact in the speeded-up remix. Naturally, some are diminished too. It’s not as poignant; here the melody is emphasized, partly for it’s rhythmic qualities, over the lyric (which goes by much faster). Also, the third Verse – a classic third Verse, where the singer goes back to his hometown – is dropped entirely.

The original ’I Took A Pill’s structure is simple – it just repeats its three sections (call them A, B, C)  three times. What makes it interesting is that, while the A section definitely seems like a Verse, the B and C sections both seem like Choruses to me. That B section is not just a Pre-Chorus… but then the C section takes it up to another level.

Give SeeB credit. When they sent him the album to pick a song to remix, he grabbed “I Took A Pill’. He heard the potential for a hit in the story line, the melody, and that two-part Chorus. And he was right.

Many great dance songs have excellent melodies that can often be more deeply appreciated at slower tempos. And many great ballads can be speeded up to dance tempos, where the care that has gone in to the melody and harmony can be repurposed, so to speak, but still strongly felt.

Most of us songwriters have more slow and midtempo songs than we need and we’re always looking for uptempo songs. I know for me uptempo groove songs have more relative value because of their (relative) scarcity.

Actually everybody is looking for uptempo songs that work for them – non-writing singers and performers as well. You might realize you have more of them than you know – both for yourself and to be covered by others – by reexamining preconceptions about having to keep the tempo and groove the same as when you wrote it.

I invite you to check out some of your own slower songs and see if, like ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’, they can be pushed up in tempo and given a more substantial groove. This doesn’t mean you have to abandon the current feel; you can keep both!

Please check out both versions of ‘I Took A Pill’ below. Whether you prefer one or the other – or neither – isn’t the point.

You might be sitting on your own kind of gold mine… or at least a good uptempo song that could liven up your set or album.

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