"Supreme" is a song by English singer Robbie Williams for his third studio album, Sing When You're Winning (2000). Chrysalis Records released the song as the third single from the album on 11 December 2000. Commercially, the single reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, topped the charts of Hungary and Poland, and peaked within the top 10 in six additional European countries and New Zealand.
"Supreme" | ||||
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Single by Robbie Williams | ||||
from the album Sing When You're Winning | ||||
Released | 11 December 2000 (2000-12-11)[1] | |||
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Length | 4:15 | |||
Label | Chrysalis | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Robbie Williams singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Supreme" on YouTube | ||||
The bridge of the song contains an interpolation of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". The string instrument part is a François de Roubaix-composed piece from the José Giovanni-directed film Dernier domicile connu starring Lino Ventura and Marlène Jobert. The song was re-recorded in a swing tone and titled "Swing Supreme" for his 2013 album Swings Both Ways.
The song became another success for Robbie Williams, reaching the top 10 in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, and several other countries. Williams also recorded a French version of the song that was released in France, peaking at number 12 and spending 34 weeks on the French chart, being certified Gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP).[2]
The "Supreme" video, titled "Gentlemen racers" as seen in its opening credits, is a tribute to British Formula One driver Jackie Stewart. It was filmed on November 11, 2000.[3] Williams portrays the fictitious character Bob Williams, a rival driver competing for the 1970s F1 World Championship. Williams eventually crashes his car, makes a surprise recovery, and ultimately loses the title when he gets diarrhea before a race and is unable to line up on the starting grid due to getting locked into his caravan when the manager thought there was no one in the caravan. An epilogue reveals that Bob Williams went on to become a celebrated blues guitarist while Jackie Stewart won the championship.
The video includes stock footage of Stewart with Williams digitally inserted in many scenes, creating the near-perfect illusion of a neck-and-neck pursuit of the championship title. The video makes extensive use of the split-screen technique as it is often seen in movies from the 1960s and 70s (for instance in the 1970 feature racing movie Le Mans), and the scenes with Robbie Williams were given a yellowed, grainy image texture in the digital editing process to match the faded look of the original 35mm celluloid footage with Jackie Stewart. As yet another movie cliché, fake newspaper headlines are shown intermittently to help narrate the story.
UK CD1 and cassette single[4][5]
UK CD2[6]
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Australasian CD single[7]
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Credits are taken from the Sing When You're Winning album booklet.[8]
Studios
Personnel
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
Certifications
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The McFly song "I Need a Woman" from 2010's Above the Noise album samples the riff from "Supreme". The Turkish band Dolapdere Big Gang recorded a version for their 2010 album Art-Ist. Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester made a cover in their 2001 album Superhits. In 2022 k-pop girls band IVE used "Supreme" speed up version as a sample, for their song "After LIKE".
The song is the title theme for the Polish TV drama series Londyńczycy (Polish for The Londoners) aired on TVP 1 since late 2008.
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Robbie Williams singles | |
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Discography | |
Life thru a Lens | |
I've Been Expecting You |
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Sing When You're Winning | |
Swing When You're Winning | |
Escapology |
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Greatest Hits |
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Intensive Care | |
Rudebox | |
Reality Killed the Video Star |
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In and Out of Consciousness |
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Take the Crown | |
Swings Both Ways | |
The Heavy Entertainment Show | |
The Christmas Present | |
Other singles |
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Featured singles |
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Other songs |
Authority control ![]() |
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