Seventeen years ago this month, Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the song you could not refuse humming regardless of its merits, peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. We recently asked former Deep Blue Something frontman Todd Pipes to tell us how he feels about the song now.
I was in graduate school at the University of North Texas in '93 and my emphasis was in writing. I wanted to see what I could get away with in a pop song and still have it be easy on the ears. I didn't want to repeat any words in the chorus, which is just criminal. And I'd had the phrase "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in my head for quite a while.
There was no girl.
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Todd Pipes in 2008.
I took it to the band when I had a spare fifteen minutes and we started cranking this thing out. We played it later that night.
We had a really great live show because we rehearsed like maniacs. One of the cardinal rules of rock 'n' roll is that you've gotta put a hit at the end. So the song quickly became a live focus and girls started coming. Then we got more guys because they were coming to hit on the girls.
When they stamped Interscope on the CD, we were right back out on the road, like, two weeks later. We just expanded our circuit, getting bigger and bigger. It was a town-by-town, state-by-state, country-by-country type of thing — which was great, because that made it last longer.
Every radio station's program director would say, "Let's get them in for the morning show: 'Breakfast with Deep Blue Something!'" And it's like, that's a great idea, but last night we were driving all night to get to your station. It was just a grind to put on a smile.
We knew how much it was costing for us to have a day off, so we told our management, "Look, we'll play every single day." The only days we had off were when we were driving from Phoenix to Philadelphia. Finally, somebody said, "Hey, I think these guys are gonna kill themselves at the pace they're at." The lifestyle didn't catch up with us, because we were working so much. Plus, everybody had girlfriends or was married, that kind of thing. Partying just wasn't our style.
Once we had "conquered America," we had to slug it out in Germany, England, and so forth. One English station told us, "Hey, congratulations on your success, but we don't think you're English enough." It was always a struggle like that. Everyone likes the song, but the program director's not sure. We thought, I guess we'll go back to Denmark. But Virgin Radio opened up and soon kids were buying German imports, paying double the price, and the label was forced to release it. We debuted at Number 3 [in the UK]. That was the ultimate, being on Top of the Pops.
We'd been touring for so long that by the time we got back to America, things had kind of died down. We went back to Europe to support "Halo" and "Josie" from the same record (Home), but the musical landscape had changed so much. That's when we started getting at odds with the record company.
Toby and I started producing other music and got distracted with more grownup endeavors. We put out another record, but it was just half-hearted. The band never broke up. We just stopped.
You always think it's gonna be a lifelong thing, but there's only one Rolling Stones. When we saw the compromises we'd have to make to maintain that level of fame, we realized we didn't want that.
Now it's weird. I'll be at the gym and the video will come on, and I'll hope no one comes over and says, "Hey, you look just like that guy." My kids think it's funny, though. They'll be out somewhere with their friends, and they don't really get it. I think they think everyone's dad kind of does it.
—As told to Jill Krasny
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