Green Light (John Legend song)
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| Single by John Legend featuring André 3000 | |||||||||||||||
| from the album Evolver | |||||||||||||||
| Released | July 29, 2008 | ||||||||||||||
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| Recorded | 2008; Wine-O-Cellar (College Park, Georgia) PatchWerk Recording Studios (Atlanta, Georgia) |
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| Length | 4:44 (album version) 4:19 (US radio edit) 3:54 (International radio edit) |
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"Green Light" is a song recorded by American R&B recording artist John Legend. It was written by Legend, Andre Benjamin, Fin Greenall, James Ho and Rick Nowels for his third studio album Evolver (2008). Produced by Malay and KP, the song was released as the first single on August 26, 2008 through Columbia Records. The song features vocals from American rapper André 3000. "Green Light" shows a shift in musical style for Legend, opting for a funk and electro sound composed of electronic synths and fast, synthesized beats. The song also features the use of several horn instruments, including the saxophone, trombone and trumpet.
"Green Light" was well received by contemporary music critics who praised it for the departure in musical style and called it a "certified club banger". The single performed well on the charts, reaching number twenty-four on the Billboard Hot 100, tying for "Ordinary People" as Legend's highest peaking single on the chart at the time. It also stood as his best selling single, earning a platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) until "All of Me" sold 4 million downloads by September 2014. It reached its highest peak in Belgium, reaching number two on the singles chart. The music video for "Green Light" was directed by Alan Ferguson. It features Legend and Benjamin pursuing women at a house party while including visual effects created by Baked FX.
"Green Light" was written by John Stephens, Andre Benjamin, Fin Greenall, James Ho and Rick Nowels and produced by Malay and KP. In an interview with British music publication Blues & Soul, Legend discussed the creation process to make the song. "Initially I was working in the studio with a guy called Rick Knowles, who’s not known for making a buncha dance songs but is a good writer! And one of the songs we worked on turned out to be ‘Green Light’. He started playing this guitar groove, put a beat to it... And, because it was uptempo and felt good, the melody and lyric came to me pretty quickly." Legend then showed the product to Kawan "KP" Prather, his A&R representative at the time, who then collaborated with Malay to re-produce the song.
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