"Black Cherry" is an electronic

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 song performed by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 group Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo, formed in 1999 in London, England, that consists of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory ....

. The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp

Alison Goldfrapp

Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp is an English singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the electronic music duo Goldfrapp. Goldfrapp has a soprano vocal range.-Early life:...

 and Will Gregory

Will Gregory

William Owen Gregory is best known as a songwriter, and the lead keyboards/synthesizer player & producer of the electronic music group Goldfrapp. Originally a classical music student at the University of York, Gregory is the son of an actress and an opera chorus-line singer...

 for the duo's second album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 Black Cherry (2003). The song was released as the album's fourth single in March 2004 to positive reviews from music critics. It was a modest commercial success, reaching the top thirty in the United Kingdom and on the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Hot Dance Singles Sales

Hot Dance Singles Sales

Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes...

 chart.

Background and reception

Goldfrapp began work on "Black Cherry" in 2002 in a darkened studio in the countryside of Bath, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Alison Goldfrapp contributed the song's lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

, which she described as "personal stuff", but would not elaborate on the song's meaning.

"Black Cherry" received positive reviews from music critics. In a review for About.com

About.com

About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....

, Wes May described the song as "lush" due to Goldfrapp's "endearingly chirpy vocals". MusicOMH.com reviewer Helen Wright called the track "blissful" because of its "plaintive strings, spaced-out melodies and soaring over everything, the unmistakable voice of Alison Goldfrapp". The CD single

CD single

A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...

 featured the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 "Gone to Earth". The song was described by MusicOMH.com as a "treat" because of its "slightly oriental..off-key piano intro" that "turns into the most ethereal chill out music imaginable".

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Black Cherry".

UK CD #1

(CDMute320; Released 1 March 2004)

1. "Black Cherry" (single mix) - 3:54
2. "Gone to Earth" - 3:23

UK CD #2

(LCDMute320; Released 1 March 2004)

1. "Black Cherry" (M83
   M83 (band)
   M83 is a musical act by French musician Anthony Gonzalez. It is named after a spiral galaxy, Messier 83. The band was founded in 2001 by Gonzalez and former member Nicolas Fromageau in Antibes, France...
   
    remix) - 4:05
2. "Twist
   Twist (Goldfrapp song)
   "Twist" is an electronic–dance song written by British duo Goldfrapp for their second album Black Cherry . It was produced by Goldfrapp, and received a positive reception from music critics...
   
   " (Kurtis Mantronik's Twist & Vac mix) - 6:44
3. "Black Cherry" music video
4. "Twist" music video

UK DVD

(DVDMute320; Released 1 March 2004)

1. "Black Cherry" (Lawrence remix - audio) - 6:34
2. "Strict Machine
   Strict Machine
   "Strict Machine" is an electronic dance song written by British group Goldfrapp and Nick Batt for their second studio album Black Cherry . It was produced by Goldfrapp and describes laboratory rats in neuroscience experiments...
   
   " music video
3. "Utopia
   Utopia (Goldfrapp song)
   "Utopia" is an electronic song performed by British group Goldfrapp. The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory for the duo's debut album Felt Mountain...
   
   " (Live in London) video
4. "Utopia" (Tom Middleton
   Tom Middleton
   Tom Middleton is a prolific British recording artist, music producer, remixer and DJ.A classically trained pianist and cellist, Middleton worked in the early 1990s with Richard D. James , co-producing "En-Trance To Exit" on the Analogue Bubblebath EP for Exeter's influential Mighty Force Records...
   
    Cosmos Acid dub edit) - 4:20

Dutch CD

(Released 1 March 2004)

1. "Black Cherry" (single mix) - 3:54
2. "Twist" (single mix) - 3:34

U.S. EP

(9253-2; Released July 2004)

1. "Black Cherry" (single mix) - 3:54
2. "Gone to Earth" - 3:23
3. "Forever" (Mountaineers remix) - 3:53
4. "Black Cherry" (M83 remix) - 4:05
5. "Black Cherry" (Lawrence remix) - 6:34
6. "Black Cherry" (Live in London) music video
7. "Sartorius" (Live at Route du Rock, Saint-Malo
   Saint-Malo
   Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...
   
   ) music video
8. "Strict Machine" music video
9. "Twist" music video

Personnel

The following people contributed to "Black Cherry":

• Alison Goldfrapp – lead vocals, backing vocals, synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  , mixing
  Audio mixing (recorded music)
  In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
  
  
• Will Gregory – synthesizer, mixing
• Nick Batt – synthesizer, programming
• Rowan Oliver - drum
  Drum
  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
  
   programming
• Tom Elmhirst - mixing
• John Dent - mastering
  Audio mastering
  Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
  
  

Charts

Chart (2004)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	28
US Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes...	15