CONTACT ME: https://wilv.click/contactBUY ME A CUPPA: https://wilv.click/buymeteaOG VERSION (YT): https://wilv.click/RunThisTownE.S. POSTHUMUS VERSION (YT): https://wilv.click/RunThisTownES If there was a specific song that made me decide to start a podcast based on cover versions, remixes and the like, this would be it. I was on a bus heading out on a Saturday Afternoon to do some shopping when the original version of this song came on via my Apple Music ‘suggested songs’ playlist. I hadn’t heard the song in years, but immediately was scrambling in my brain to figure out how / why I remembered this song in a slightly different context. Most people will know who Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West are, regardless of tastes in music. Each of the three names are known way outside of their respective core genres, and their combined net worth is something over $5 Billion. E.S Posthumus though, are not known by name, so to say, however if you’re a fan of American Football, you almost certainly know of some of their work. The two brothers Franz Vonlichten and Helmut Vonlichten perhaps could be most well known for the intro and ident music for the NFL on CBS, which is one of the most iconic themes in American sports history today. The two brothers were also responsible for the musical score to CBS’ Super Bowl Coverage ‘Hard Open’, for a number of occasions, including a remake of this very song, followed up by a fantastic version of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ 3 years later when CBS next held the Super Bowl rights in the rotation. Re-Recording & Super Bowl XLIV Use In terms of Super Bowl XLIV, I ironically had a really good copy of this hard intro on my YouTube channel, before it was serendipitously deleted by the gods of Google. There are a couple of versions still lying around on YouTube, just… Not as good as my version in terms of visual quality! That was the joys of having a two PC-Streaming / Broadcasting set up back in the day. You could just record video like that, with minimal effort. A copy of the video does exist on YouTube, just in glorious SD quality, as well as an audio only version of the track. The track itself was released on iTunes (Or what we now call Apple Music) in July 2010, where it can be found to this day. What makes this remix / remake better than the original? The original is fantastic in its own right, and heck a song that reaches No 2. In the Billboard Hot 100, and No 1. In the UK Top 40 has to be somewhat decent. Adding in E.S Posthumus to the mix just gives the song an additional bit of gravitas, especially it being… The introduction to the Super Bowl, one of the top 2 watched sporting events of any kind in the world in any given year (The other being the Champions League Final). The way the track uses piano for the intro, replacing the originals version with something more intricate and hard hitting shows how even by using similar instruments, simple changes can have a huge impact. The song maintains much of the same feel lyrically, however the backing track is vastly different, moving away from what is a more electronically created beat to something far more orchestral. This doesn’t smack you in the face for the sake of, but the use of strings in particular add some amazing transitions from verse to verse, and creates a different, yet similar enough feel to the track. I’m of the opinion that they lyrics stand out more as a consequence of this, as whilst there may be more going on from a composer’s point of view, everything blends in well together. From a branding standpoint, the way that E.S Posthumus also manages to get the NFL on CBS score into the track is just a ‘French Kiss’. They do it twice in the track, without making it too obvious, yet familiar enough to those who watches the NFL for 17 regular season games + Playoffs, compared to your casual ‘Oh, it’s Super Bowl Weekend, let’s get some brisket and wings out!’ fan. Additional Notes Sadly, E.S Posthumus are no more, as Franz Vonlichten passed away in the spring of 2010, just a few months after the track was used as the introduction to Super Bowl 47. Franz’s brother Helmut continues to write music, and has since been in a band known as Les Friction. Run This Town, and Rihanna in particular has had a bit of a wild ride with CBS and their NFL coverage. Originally, this, or a version of this song was supposed to be used as the introduction to CBS’ coverage of Thursday Night Football in 2014, 4 and a half+ years after the Super Bowl intro. An incident involving Ray Rice and his wife meant that there was a change to CBS’ coverage of pre-game for their first edition of Thursday Night Football, and Rihanna took exception to the fact that her music wasn’t being played as the intro. This eventually led to the deal between the two being scrapped, and for many, the then four way collaboration seemed to have been lost forever. The game itself? As an adopted Hoosier of sorts and an ...
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