Rather Be

"Rather Be" was written by Clean Bandit keyboardist Jack Patterson, Nicole Marshall and James Napier (frequent collaborator of Disclosure), and was produced by Clean Bandit cellist Grace Chatto and Patterson. (although is frequently notated in sheet music in the easier to play key of A minor due to the songs popularity), in common time and at a light tempo of 120 beats per minute. ==Release and critical reception==

"Rather Be" received its first play on 4 December 2013, when it featured as BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's Hottest Record in the World. The song's digital release date was originally planned to be 19 January 2014, but was moved to 17 January. In December 2014, the song received a nomination for Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, which it would go on to win in early 2015. ==Commercial performance==

The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, selling 163,000 copies in the first week. It is the second best-selling song of 2014 in the UK, selling over 1.13 million copies by the end of the year. In August 2015, the British Phonographic Industry certified the song 3× platinum (the sixth song of the century to achieve this). It stayed in the top 75 for 73 weeks, setting the record for the longest unbroken run (since equalled by "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran). As of September 2017, the song has sold in the UK 1,283,000 copies in pure sales, it also gained 93 million in streams, making a total of 2,219,000 in combined units. ==Music video==

The music video was directed by the group and was uploaded to YouTube on 5 December 2013. It has since received more than 712 million views. The video was filmed in Tokyo, Japan, and features Haruka Abe as a Japanese fan. During the video, Abe lip-syncs to Jess Glynne's vocals. Glynne herself also appears in the video. The band comments: "The video is about a Japanese fan of the band who becomes delirious and has hallucinations of band members and our logo appearing unexpectedly in her daily life as a chef. Filming in Tokyo was an amazing experience: we spent almost a week there and everyone was so helpful. We made it ourselves as always, which was quite scary as we've never produced anything so far away before. We had a bit of trouble filming the scene on the train though. Turns out it's considered incredibly rude to make noise on a train so when we started dancing around to the track in the carriage with the extras, it didn't go down well! Got shouted at." The video begins with the girl waking up and petting her cat, she then goes to her desk and turns on her tape recorder and begins to lip sync the song as she draws in her sketch book. She then leaves her home, rides her scooter in the city, goes to a fish market and her job as a chef, during these times, she has hallucinations about seeing the Clean Bandit members and other people dancing around her everywhere she goes. She goes home and lays down on her bed and suddenly hallucinates about being at a Clean Bandit concert, she then walks in the city and encounters a keyboardist playing in the streets and notices his eye being weird and she begins to run away and she gets on the subway and sees people dancing to the song and she faints. She is then seen in a mental hospital as her father visits her as she struggles to wake up and still lip-syncing to the song. The video ends with her father taking off a mask revealing to be Jack Patterson. ==Live performances==

On 16 January 2014, the group performed "Rather Be" in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, together with a cover version of Lorde's "Royals". They performed it as part of their sets at the Summertime Ball, Glastonbury and T in the Park. They also performed at the 2015 Brit Awards nomination launch party along with their new single "Real Love". ==In popular culture==

• In April 2014, the 1975 covered the song while at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. • From September 2014 to December 2016, the instrumental of the song was used in Marks & Spencer food adverts, until January 2017 when the music was changed to "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran. • In September 2014, Coca-Cola released a commercial in the United States featuring the chorus of the song. • In September 2014, YES Network featured the song in the closing credits montage of Derek Jeter's final season of playing Major League Baseball. • The song was featured in the season 6 episode of Glee entitled "The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester". The song is performed by the members of The New Directions. • The song was used in the Konami game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 as third track. • The song is the backing music in 2016 for ads for Graton Resort and Casino in northern California. • Mazda has used the song in an Australian commercial for the Mazda2 vehicle. • The Australian singer Jessica Mauboy covered the song on her album The Secret Daughter Season Two: Songs from the Original 7 Series (2017). • A cover version by Marc Scibilia was featured in the 2018 Sony Pictures Animation film Peter Rabbit. • The song was featured over the closing credits to the final episode of Sense8, "Amor Vincit Omnia", with behind-the-scenes clips of the production of the show. • The instrumental version of the song was used in Amphibiland, the pilot version of Amphibia. • The song is featured on the 2022 dance rhythm game Just Dance 2023 Edition. ==Track listing==

Credits adapted from "Rather Be" CD single liner notes. Musicians • Jack Patterson – keyboards, piano • Grace Chatto – cello • Luke Patterson – drums • Anthony Strong – piano • Asher Zaccardelli – viola • Beatrice Philips – violin • Neil Amin-Smith – violin • Florence Rawlings – vocals • Jess Glynne – vocals Technical • Jack Patterson – producer, mixer • Grace Chatto – producer • Lewis Hopkin – mastering • Wez Clarke – mixer • Liam Nolan – engineer • Brett Shaw – engineer (album version, mistakenly uncredited on single version) ==Accolades==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts All-time charts ==Certifications==