‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ Almost Became New Radicals’ First Single, Reveals Co-Writer Gregg Alexander

Alexander says he “almost flipped a coin” between releasing “You Get What You Give” and “Murder,” which became a massive hit for Sophie Ellis-Bextor

There’s another lifetime in which “Murder on the Dancefloor” wasn’t recorded by Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Gregg Alexander of the British band New Radicals, who cowrote the 2001 disco-pop hit with Ellis-Bextor, revealed in a new interview with The Guardian that his band nearly released “Murder on the Dancefloor” as its debut single rather than the 1998 alt-rock hit “You Get What You Give.”

The vocalist and guitarist wrote the song’s hook one night in 1994, when he was trying to drive his blue Ford Mustang to a nightclub and the vehicle wouldn’t start. Feeling annoyed, he grabbed an acoustic guitar and came up with its infectious main lyric — which many new listeners have recently learned thanks to the song’s usage in the hit movie Saltburn.