Вишнёвые губы: История песни Garbage и JT LeRoy

2002 single by Garbage
the adult anime label

"Cherry Lips", also known as "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" is a song written, recorded and produced by alternative rock group Garbage for their third studio album, Beautiful Garbage. It was released in early 2002 by Mushroom Records as second single from the album, with the exception of North America, where Interscope issued "Breaking Up the Girl" instead. In the years since release, "Cherry Lips" has become an enduring track for the band, an alternative rock LGBTQ anthem, and after almost two decades continues to resonate, being used as the home run song of the Milwaukee Brewers and in advertisement campaigns for Microsoft's Surface Go laptop tablets. "Cherry Lips" faltered in major markets, but was a huge hit in Italy, where it had been the sound of a prominent winter marketing campaign for Breil Stones, reaching No. (Number) 8 on the Italian charts. As the first Garbage single fully released in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the band donated a percentage of the royalties generated from the sales of "Cherry Lips" to the International Red Cross.

"Cherry Lips" was written and recorded at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Written just as Garbage were about to begin mixing their third album, "Cherry Lips" was a late inclusion to the album. The song began as a keyboard melody, and was originally known by the working title "Wonderjam". While recording the song, Steve Marker played a tuba, and recorded the output of the audio being run through a wah wah pedal. Shirley Manson described "Cherry Lips" as "an adrenaline rush" and "probably the most celebratory song we've ever written". and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, written by author Laura Albert under the pseudonym of JT LeRoy. "I took a bit of poetic license, but I wrote it for JT. It's easily the most uplifting thing we've ever done. It sounds nothing like us; it sounds like a Shangri Las song", Manson explained. Like the rest of the world, Manson had believed that LeRoy had been a teenage truck stop hustler who'd escaped the streets to become a writer. Manson exchanged emails with LeRoy over the course of the album sessions. "I wanted to write an ode to transgender spirit, inspired by my interactions with this peculiar but emotionally generous creature I knew online as JT", Manson later recalled. On the Beautiful Garbage sleeve notes, Manson dedicated "Cherry Lips" to "The Terminator", another alias of JT LeRoy. In 2005, LeRoy was exposed as an invention of Laura Albert in articles published by Stephen Beachy, The New York Times and Vanity Fair. "I know a lot of people felt conned in the end," Manson explained. "I didn't. I just felt sad that a woman felt she would stand a better chance in the world if she was a man, that JT was 'dead' and wouldn't be part of my life anymore". "We were in different headspaces every time we recorded, which is why every song is different," Manson later explained, ""Silence Is Golden" is probably the heaviest song we've ever recorded and "Cherry Lips" the poppiest. They're juxtaposed right next to each other." When Manson recorded her lead vocal, the takes were heavily EQ'd at the tracking stage ("lt was tracked that way for effect", explained engineer Billy Bush, "it sounded weirder that way! ").

The first territory to receive a "Cherry Lips" commercial release was Japan, where Sony Music Int'l issued a five track CD maxi of "Cherry Lips" remixes on December 27, 2001 coinciding with the announcement of Garbage's upcoming tour dates in Tokyo and Osaka. In February 2002, Sony followed up the single by issuing Special Collection, an exclusive extended play collecting together the international b sides with artwork from the "Cherry Lips" music video. Across Europe, PIAS Recordings issued "Cherry Lips" on January 7, 2002, as a four track maxi CD, two track CD single and as a two track 12 inch vinyl. before recharting at No. 100 for a single week at the end of February; In Spain, "Cherry Lips" reached No. 15 on the airplay chart, while in Belgium, the single made the Ultratip (sales and airplay) charts in both the Flanders region (at No. 18) and the Wallonia region (No. 12). In Italy, where "Cherry Lips" had been licensed to the Breil Stones Winter 2001/02 campaign advertisements, the single debuted at No. 8. "Cherry Lips" remained on the Italian top twenty for six weeks. On December 3, "Cherry Lips" hit radio and music TV, The "Cherry Lips" remixes peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Club chart as "Cherry Lips" hit No. 2 on the airplay chart. "Cherry Lips" was issued to stores on January 14 as a 2×CD single set and debuted at No. 7 on the ARIA Singles Chart, both the second highest new entry, and Garbage's first Australian top ten single. On January 24, Garbage performed both "Cherry Lips" and "Androgyny" live on Channel V outside Fox Studios in Sydney. On the fourth week of release, the single reached No. 1 on the ARIA Alternative chart as "ARIA certified "Cherry Lips" gold for shipments of over 35,000 units. In New Zealand, the band's performance in Auckland and airplay for the single resulted in Beautiful Garbage re charting at No. 12 on the RIANZ album chart. Beautiful Garbage rebounded on the album chart at the end of the month, reaching number 16 in April. "Cherry Lips" was originally scheduled to be issued in the United Kingdom to support Garbage's mini tour of Europe in November 2001. The track and remixes were serviced to radio, while the commercial release was put on hold. Garbage performed the song on Later With Jools Holland, MTV's Morning Glory and on Radio One's Evening Session as well as pre recording a performance for Top of the Pops. At the start of 2002, Garbage kicked off the rescheduled release of "Cherry Lips", performing the song on cd:uk, T4 and on the Pepsi Chart Show. Mushroom Records issued "Cherry Lips" to record stores on January 21 in a 12 inch vinyl format and a 2×CD single set. A week later, "Cherry Lips" debuted at No. 24 on the UK Singles Chart. The single dropped to No. 40 after three weeks. An internet only remix of "Cherry Lips" produced by Girls Against Boys bassist Eli Janney was streamed online on various sites to promote the song. On February 1, Mushroom partnered with The Sun tabloid and Asda supermarket to give away a free CD titled Garbage:Sampler that included the "Cherry Lips" remix. In Ireland, "Cherry Lips" peaked at No. 27 on the Irish Singles Chart.

Since its release, the song has been constantly performed at Garbage concerts. In March 2003, "Cherry Lips" featured on the PlayStation 2 game Amplitude. While playing the "Cherry Lips" level, the game shows footage taken from the "Breaking Up the Girl" music video. In 2007, "Cherry Lips" was remastered and included on Garbage's greatest hits album Absolute Garbage. In December 2011, the song featured in an Actimel yoghurt spot in Italy. In 2012, the song featured on the band's second greatest hits album, The Absolute Collection, released in Australia and New Zealand ahead of Garbage's 2013 tour promoting Not Your Kind of People. In June 2013, the same week that Garbage's live Blu ray/DVD "One Mile High Live" was released, "Cherry Lips" re charted at No. 89 on the UK Physical Singles chart. In 2021, "Cherry Lips" was remastered by Heba Kadry for inclusion in the 20th Anniversary Edition of Beautiful Garbage out on November 5. In 2022, the song was used for the "Salmon Sisters" commercial of Microsoft's Surface Go and was included in the first episode of the Netflix series Heartbreak High. The same year, the song was remastered again for inclusion in Garbage's third greatest hits album Anthology, out on October 28.