"1901" is a song about Paris. Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars explained: "Paris in 1901 was better than it is now. So the song is a fantasy about Paris."
Phoenix is a French rock band but most of their songs are in English, giving them a wider appeal. The lyrics don't always make a lot of sense, but they serve the music, supporting the groove phonetically on stadium rockers like this one. That's how we end up with lines like:
Now the future's sorted out
Watch her moving in elliptical pattern
The chorus is just the words "fold it" repeated over and over (at least that's what the published lyrics say).
Phoenix singer Thomas Mars told the Washington DC free newspaper Express: "Anthems are good. '1901' really worked because we wrote almost all the song in 10 minutes, but it took us almost a year to finish it. We had the idea of the verse, and the chorus, the bridge, the rhythm, all the arrangements and everything, and then it was really hard to finish. So, I think you can feel there's something more sophisticated, maybe a production that's maybe new to us."
"1901" is the second track on Phoenix's fourth album,
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. It was released as a free download on February 23, 2009 when Phoenix's redesigned official website was launched.
The song was the band's first to crack the American market, breaking through in 2009 when upbeat pop songs were all the rage. Another artist to emerge at this same time was Kesha, who went to #1 with her high-energy bop "
TiK ToK." Phoenix followed up "1901" with another hit, "
Lisztomania."
On the Billboard Alternative Songs (formerly Modern Rock Tracks) chart dated February 20, 2010, "1901" reached #1 in its 31st week on the chart. This set a record for the longest climb to the pole position since the tally's 1988 inception.
Nine months later, the Neon Trees track "
Animal set a new record when it reached #1 in its 32nd week on Alternative Songs.
Phoenix was signed to an independent label, Glassnote Records. When the song hit #1 on the Alternative chart, it was just the fourth independent release to do so, following the Offspring's "
Come Out and Play" (Epitaph, 1994), Everlast's "
What It's Like" (Tommy Boy, 1998) and Silversun Pickups' "
Panic Switch" (Dangerbird, 2009).
This was one of the first Phoenix songs they worked on with producer Philippe Zdar. When the band brought it to Zdar, it most mostly developed, so the big changes were to the structure. Zdar said he took on a coaching role during the sessions, and was constantly encouraging them to be "Modern." He was surprised when they gave the track away, but was thrilled with the positive response.
Phoenix's 2009 performance of this song on Saturday Night Live was a career-defining moment for the band. Daniel Glass, head of Glassnote Records, recalled getting the initial call from SNL looking to get the band on the show just after the label had leaked "1901." "We gave the song away for free and it shot up to number one on the blogs," Glass explained to Radio.com. "They wanted to book the band in a few weeks, which was unheard of because the band would be on SNL way before their album would be out."
Thomas Mars added that guesting on the show was the best way to introduce themselves to an American audience, to actually have them see the band live and in the flesh. "There was no misunderstanding possible. People didn't hear the song and think we were two DJs or a Scottish trio, which happened to us many times before," the singer explained with a chuckle. "It was nice to start the relationship with the US. in a good way on a good basis. It wasn't a blind date."
In 2011 the British singer Birdy
covered the song, turning into a mellow lament.
Phoenix won over an audience of Olympic athletes when they performed "1901" at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris games. The athletes got right up to the stage (some went on it), like big fans watching their favorite group at a festival. At the end of the song, Thomas Mars went into the crowd, where he got a triumphant lift, looking like he won a gold medal.
