"Deeper Shade of Blue"
Single by Steps
from the album Steptacular
Released3 April 2000 (2000-04-03)[1]
Recorded1999
StudioPWL (Manchester, England)
Length
  • 4:16 (album version)
  • 3:45 (radio edit)
Label
Songwriter(s)
  • Mark Topham
  • Karl Twigg
Producer(s)
Steps singles chronology
"Say You'll Be Mine" / "Better the Devil You Know"
(1999)		 "Deeper Shade of Blue"
(2000)		 "When I Said Goodbye" / "Summer of Love"
(2000)
Music video
"Deeper Shade of Blue" on YouTube

"Deeper Shade of Blue" is a song by British dance-pop group Steps, released as the fourth single from their second studio album, Steptacular (1999), on 3 April 2000. The song was originally recorded by English singer-songwriter Tina Cousins, but aside from a few promotional 12-inch vinyl discs pressed in 1998, her version remains unreleased.[2] "Deeper Shade of Blue" entered the UK Singles Chart at number four and spent one more week in the top 10 before falling down the charts. After a total of nine weeks, it left the top 100.

In October 2011, following the band's reformation, Steps performed the track on Lorraine and Loose Women. The song was included on Steps's compilation albums Gold: Greatest Hits (2001),[3] The Last Dance (2002),[4] and The Ultimate Collection (2011).[5] On 1 September 2015, Claire Richards Richards premiered a stripped-backed piano recording of the track via her social media pages.

Composition

The first two verses of the song are performed by Ian "H" Watkins and Claire Richards,[6] respectively, whilst all five members perform the middle eight. The chorus also features all five voices.

Reception

Jon O'Brien wrote for AllMusic and in two different reviews he noted "Deeper Shade of Blue" is a "club potential", and the Sleaze Sisters remix is "realized on a Sash-esque trance remix".[4] O'Brien also commented it is "Italo house-inspired" and it "fits right in with the current retro-dance revival".[5] Lucas Villa from AXS described the song as a "futuristic club banger", adding that the group "battled the love blues atop pulsating house music beats with Richards' out-of-this-world vocals channeling the dance floor divas that came before her." He also stated that the song "remains the band's fiercest, most flawless effort."[7] Can't Stop the Pop called it "a total mood-piece", noting that "the thumping club beat creates a brooding darkness that was quite unlike anything Steps had attempted before."[8]

The song was referenced by Dave Benson Phillips during an episode of Get Your Own Back when H was thrown in the Gunk Dunk. After H's shocked reaction to being gunked, Benson Phillips remarked "As you can tell, H has gone a deeper shade of blue" before H splashed him.[9]

Music video

The music video has a futuristic style, with the group wearing blue and red latex uniforms with red latex gloves with the girls wearing blue latex hats for the dance sequences and each transforming into a darker alter ego during the video. The alter egos are to show the darker side of life that the song talks about.

Track listings

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Steptacular.[14]

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[21] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ↑ "New Releases – For Week Starting April 3, 2000: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 1 April 2000. p. 27. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  2. ↑ Deeper Shade of Blue (UK 12-inch promo vinyl disc). Tina Cousins. Eastern Bloc Records. 1998. BLOC 109 TDJ.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  3. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Gold: Greatest Hits". AllMusic.
  4. 1 2 O'Brien, Jon. "Last Dance". AllMusic.
  5. 1 2 Jon O'Brien. "The Ultimate Collection". AllMusic.
  6. ↑ "International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music". Google Books. 2002.
  7. ↑ Villa, Lucas (19 June 2017). "Steps turns 20: Counting down the pop group's top 10 singles". AXS. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  8. ↑ "Steps – Deeper Shade Of Blue". Can't Stop the Pop. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "H from Steps on Get Your Own Back". Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2021 – via YouTube.
  10. ↑ Deeper Shade of Blue (UK enhanced CD single liner notes). Steps. Jive Records, Ebul Records. 2000. 9201022.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  11. ↑ Deeper Shade of Blue (UK cassette single sleeve). Steps. Jive Records, Ebul Records. 2000. 9201024.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  12. ↑ Deeper Shade of Blue (European CD single liner notes). Steps. Jive Records, Ebul Records. 2000. 9201139.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  13. 1 2 "Steps – Deeper Shade of Blue" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  14. ↑ Steptacular (UK CD album liner notes). Steps. Jive Records, Ebul Records. 1999. 0519442.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  15. ↑ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 17, no. 17. 22 April 2000. p. 18. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  16. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Deeper Shade of Blue". Irish Singles Chart.
  17. ↑ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  18. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  19. ↑ "Official Independent Singles Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company.
  20. ↑ "Best Sellers of 2000: Singles Top 100". Music Week. 20 January 2001. p. 25.
  21. ↑ "British single certifications – Steps – Deeper Shade of Blue". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
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