Ebony and Ivory explained

"Ebony and Ivory" is a 1982 number-one single by Paul McCartney, performed with Stevie Wonder. It was released on March 29 of that year. At the simplest level, the song is about the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano, but also deals with integration and racial harmony on a deeper level. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony folks!".^[1] The song is featured on McCartney's album Tug of War as well as several of Wonder's Greatest Hits albums. The song reached number one on both the UK and the US charts in 1982.

Although written by McCartney alone, the song was performed live in the studio by both McCartney and Wonder, though due to conflicting work schedules, both recorded their parts for the song's music video separately (as explained by Sir Paul in his commentary for The McCartney Years 3-dvd boxed set).

"Ebony and Ivory" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the fourth-biggest hit of 1982.^[2] For McCartney, the song's run atop the chart was the longest of any of his post-Beatles works, and second longest career-wise (behind "Hey Jude" with The Beatles); for Wonder, it was his longest-running chart-topper.^[3] The song also spent five weeks atop the adult contemporary chart.^[4]

Following the song's massive chart success, it was derided as "saccharine" and was later named as the tenth worst song of all time by Blender magazine.^[5] On October 2007 it was named the worst duet in history by BBC 6 Music listeners.^[6]

The song listed at #59 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-60.shtml

Popular culture references

This song has been parodied in many US television shows, such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Everybody Hates Chris and Saturday Night Live, as well as movies such as Undercover Brother and Guess Who.

• On the TV show Friends, the song was sung (off-screen) by Chandler Bing and his co-worker Shelly at a Karaoke in the first-season episode, "The One with the Ick Factor". In the season-10 episode, "The One with Ross's Tan", Ross gets confused by the spray-on tan machine he was using, resulting in him being extremely dark on the front and light on the back. Upon seeing him, Chandler observes that he could sing a duet of "Ebony and Ivory" by himself.
• On the show "Father Ted", Graham Norton's character, Father Noel Furlong, sings the song in a caravan with his religious retreat group in the episode, "Hell".
• In Undercover Brother, the song is sung with Denise Richards and Eddie Griffin. Denise Richards' voice is dubbed and replaced by that of actress/recording artist Bethany Joy Lenz.
• In the pilot episode of Everybody Hates Chris, the song played over a fight scene featuring African-American Chris (Tyler James Williams) and racist, caucasian Joey Caruso (Travis T.Flory).
• In the episode of the animated sitcom The Simpsons named "Marge's Son Poisoning", Seymour Skinner and his mother are seen singing that song in a karaoke contest.
• In an episode of Eve, JT's mother and Donavon sing this song whilst playing the piano.
• In an episode of MTV's Rob and Big, Rob Dyrdek and Big Black sing karaoke to the song while wearing wigs.
• The song was covered by a hardcore band Murphy's Law for their The Best of Times album.
• In an episode of the sitcom Early Doors, the song is sung by the two Police Officers Phil and Nige at the Karaoke for Mel's 21st Birthday.
• In an episode of Season 3 on Las Vegas, Josh Duhamel's character and James Lesure's characters sing Karaoke to the song.
• In the film Guess Who, the song is played on the radio as Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac awkwardly listen during a drive.
• Comedian/musician Stephen Lynch referenced the song in "Vanilla Ice Cream" on his 2005 album The Craig Machine.
• Dante, the main character in the video game series Devil May Cry, dual-wields two handguns called "Ebony & Ivory".
• In the video game Rogue Galaxy, there are two cats in Zerard named "Ebony & Ivory".
• In the video game Xenosaga, the character Albedo Piazzolla makes a direct reference to McCartney himself and a lyric of the song, "Ebony and Ivory, living in perfect harmony".
• In the second and third seasons of the television show Arrested Development, character George Oscar Bluth performs a duet with a black puppet named Franklin titled "It Ain't Easy Being White" which parodies the song.
• In a 1982 episode of Saturday Night Live, the song is spoofed and sung by "Stevie Wonder" (Eddie Murphy) and "Frank Sinatra" (Joe Piscopo).
• In 2005's Racing Stripes, the two flies, Buzz and Scuzz, duet on the song while moving back and forth between the black and white stripes of "Stripes" the Zebra (the characters are voiced by Steve Harvey, who's black, and David Spade, who's white).
• Popular internet game reviewer "Yahtzee" of Zero Punctuation plays the song in the background during the end credits in his review of "Uncharted."
• Paul McGrath has stated once that when Manchester United were on a pre-season tour, the bouncers of a club said if either Paul or team-mate Remi Moses 'clicked' with a girl they would have to leave. McGrath and his Utd team-mates proceeded to lie on the ground arm in arm while Ebony and Ivory played.
• Commercials for the third season of the USA Network comedy/drama Psych feature the song being sung by characters Gus and Shawn, respectively. The commercial itself -- in which Gus and Shawn first sing the song while playing a piano in a room with windows, and then while standing and sitting on the piano's keys itself -- is a parody of the video.
• Jay z mentions in 112 song 'Cheat on You', "They wanna ride wit me, stay fly wit me/Wanna help me get rid of my rivalries/Wanna be the ebony to my ivory"
• In Aces go Places, Sam Hui sings it in Chinese.
• In the season 2 episode of Ugly Betty titled "Nice day for a Posh wedding" Wilhemina states that the theme to her wedding is Ebony and Ivory and that white and dark chocolates should be in the same box, not segregated.
• January 26th 2009 Jordan Gracie and Brian Waterman were singing the duet at Cheers Halifax for Brian's going away party
• Stephen Colbert & Paul McCartney sang this as a duet on The Colbert Report. ^[7]
• On the episode "The Greater Good" of the US TV series House (season 5, episode 14, original airdate: 02/02/09), Dr. House cites the song in reference to Foreman's and Thirteen's relationship.
• On the episode of Fresh Prince, "Guess Who's Coming to Marry," which features Will's Aunt Janice bringing her white fiancé (played by Diedrich Bader). Carlton sings this song along with "Jungle Fever," another Wonder song, and "Black and White."

Personnel

• Paul McCartney

Bass, guitar, synthesisers, vocoder, percussion, piano and vocals

• Stevie Wonder

Electric piano, synthesisers, drums, percussion and vocals

Chart positions

Chart (1982)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	1[8]
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1[9]
U.S. Billboard AC	1[10]
German Media Control Singles Chart	1
Norwegian VG-lista Singles Chart	1[11]
Australian Kent Music Report	2
Swiss Singles Chart	2[12]
Swedish Singles Chart	2[13]
Austrian Singles Chart	3[14]
Japanese Oricon Singles Chart	26[15]
Japanese Oricon International Chart	1[16]

Notes and References

1. Martin, George (editor): Making Music, page 62. Pan Books, 1983. ISBN 0-330-26945-3
2. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1982 Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles - 1982
3. Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006," 2007.
4. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition, 1996
5. http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=819 Run for Your Life! It’s the 50 Worst Songs Ever! Article on Blender :: The Ultimate Guide to Music and More
6. Web site: Ebony and Ivory voted worst duet. 2007-10-06. 2007-10-08. BBC News.
7. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2980-Zero-Punctuation-Uncharted-Drake-s-Fortune The Escapist : Zero Punctuation: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
8. Web site: Chart Stats - Paul McCartney And Stevie Wonder - Ebony And Ivory. BPI. 2008-08-06.
9. Web site: allmusic ((( Tug of War > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))".. allmusic. Billboard. 2008-07-16.
10. Web site: allmusic ((( Tug of War > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))".. allmusic. Billboard. 2008-07-16.
11. Web site: norwegiancharts.com - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony & Ivory. VG-lista. 2008-08-06.
12. Web site: norwegiancharts.com - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony & Ivory. VG-lista. 2008-08-06.
13. Web site: swedishcharts.com - Paul McCartney - Ebony & Ivory. 2008-08-06.
14. Web site: norwegiancharts.com - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony & Ivory. VG-lista. 2008-08-06.
15. Web site: Paul McCartney Japanese Singles Chart listings. Original Confidence. 2008-07-16.
16. http://www18.ocn.ne.jp/~hbr/JPP1.htm List of number-one singles on the Japanese Oricon International Chart (1968-2000)