Ulterior Motives (song)

Everyone Knows That (Ulterior Motives) is the name given to a lost song, of which 17 seconds have surfaced. It first appeared on WatZatSong, a precursor of sorts to Shazam, in 2021, when a grainy, seventeen second recording was uploaded by user carl92.^[2][3] The user discovered the snippet in an old DVD backup, but did not know where it was from, which prompted him to upload it to the internet for identification.

History

It is unknown precisely when the full song was recorded, but given the song's synth-pop-ish sound and vocal style, theorists have surmised it was probably recorded sometime in the 1980s, although a 1990s recording date has been floated around as well. Rolling Stone described the song as being in line with the new wave music of the 1980s.^[2] The seventeen second snippet of the song was uploaded to WatZatSong (a precursor of sorts to Shazam) in 2021, with carl92 asking for help in identifying the song.

Online search and artists

The uploading of the song snippet was slow to gain traction at first, but after several months of ruling out artist after artist, the process of identifying this song took on a cult-ish following.^[2] The identification process spread to Reddit, where a sub-forum dedicated to the song was created. Possible theorized sources for the song include a 1990s MTV broadcast, a commercial jingle, or a piece of Japanese muzak played in McDonald's throughout Eastern Europe.^[2] One such distributor of muzak later confirmed that they did not have this track in their database.^[2]

Several YouTube users have recorded covers which expand the snippet into a full song. An AI generated cover has also appeared on YouTube as well.

Several artists have been floated for this song, most notably AI and the Swedish band Roxette.^{[citation needed]} AI was quickly ruled out as the known AI version of this song features an array of samples after the initial seventeen seconds sounding nothing like the seventeen second sample. Roxette has been floated as an artist of this song as many users noted the similarities of this song to some of Roxette's own songs. In addition, after the song was scaled down a key, a previously unknown female vocalist was allegedly heard alongside the male vocalist, a combination that Roxette used in some of their songs such as Dangerous. A user also noted the bass sounded similar to Guy Pratt, a popular session bassist in the 1980s who now plays for Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets (Roxette, being a duo, were known for using session musicians on many of their songs). However, some users expressed doubt Roxette was behind the song as they are a well-known band in many countries including the United States, and that such a song likely wouldn't go unnoticed, even if it weren't released as a single by the band. Some people have speculated their 2016 song Good Karma from the album of the same name has its roots in this song, with it being reworked into Good Karma, but the trail has gone cold.

Savage Garden, who hit big in 1997 with their eponymous debut album, have also been floated as a possible artist. A YouTuber examining their connection to this song notes that the vocals are similar to that of their lead vocalist Darren Hayes. They theorize that this song may have been a demo by the band never intended to see the light of day; Savage Garden recorded several demos before their debut album, including one that would eventually become Truly Madly Deeply. Only a handful of these demos, including the aforementioned one, are known to exist.^[4]

On November 17th, 2023, Darren Hayes made a tweet simply saying "Everybody Knows That". This has lead to increased speculation that he is, in fact, the vocalist behind the song, and that a full reveal could be coming soon, although some users floated the idea that he is just trolling people searching for this song.^[5]

Instruments

The following are the instruments allegedly used in this song:

• LinnDrum
• Synthesizer
• Bass Guitar
• Telecaster Guitar

See also

• The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet
• Lostwave

Notes

References