40 Fun Facts About Yello

Yello's 1985 track 'Oh Yeah' became the unofficial theme of which hip-thrusting recurring character on The Simpsons?

Duffman, the caped Duff Beer mascot voiced by Hank Azaria, makes his entrances to the song. His hip thrusts were first acted out by Brad Bird.

Which 1986 John Hughes comedy made Yello's 'Oh Yeah' famous by playing it again over the closing credits?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off used the track so memorably that it became known as the Ferris Bueller song. Hughes, a fan of the duo, had asked permission to use it himself.

Yello's 'Oh Yeah' became Hollywood shorthand for desire after a 1986 teen comedy played it over which make of car?

Ferrari's 250 GT, owned by a character's father, is what the camera lingers on in the scene. Film-makers have reached for the song to signal a coveted car ever since.

Which Welsh singer sang lead on Yello's 1987 single 'The Rhythm Divine'?

Shirley Bassey recorded her vocal at Yello's own studio, and the song became her first CD single.

In which Swiss city, also Dieter Meier's birthplace, did the electronic band Yello form in 1979?

Zürich also hosted the 2005 premiere of Electro Pop Made in Switzerland, a documentary that tells the band's story.

The title of Yello's second album, Claro Que Si, means 'yes, of course' in which language?

Spanish gave the 1981 album its name, and the language returned in later Yello titles such as 'Si Senor the Hairy Grill', which became a Fox TV show's theme.

Dieter Meier explained the invented band name Yello as a hello delivered in which particular manner?

Yelled is the key word: Meier described the name as a yelled hello. The neologism first appeared on the 1979 single 'I.T. Splash'.

Yello singer Dieter Meier produces wine and beef at Ojo de Agua, his ranch in which country?

Argentina is where Meier bought 2,200 hectares in the late 1990s, a four-hour drive from Buenos Aires. A restaurant and store in his home city carries the ranch's name.

In the 1990s Yello's Dieter Meier was involved with a company that recycled cans into which product?

Watches made from recycled cans were sold under the name ReWATCH. In the same decade Meier also designed silk scarves and kept up his performance art.

Yello tracks including 'Call It Love' and 'Moon on Ice' were used in episodes of which 1980s American police drama?

Miami Vice drew four tracks from Yello's 1987 album One Second, and had already used the single 'Desire' in its 1986 episode 'Killshot'.

Which founding member left Yello for a solo career in 1983, turning the trio into a duo?

Carlos Perón, credited with tapes on the first three albums, had already released a solo record, Impersonator, in 1981.

Which 1985 Yello album, home of 'Oh Yeah', was the first by a Swiss group to top the Swiss album chart?

Stella also went gold in Germany. Its title came from a character in Snowball, an operatic stage show that Meier planned but never put on.

Which 1988 Yello album features an eight-minute version of the hit single 'The Race'?

Flag carried the full-length track, while the edited single reached number seven in the UK that August, the duo's only top-ten hit there.

In 2007 Yello recorded a new version of 'The Race' to promote DHL and which motor racing series?

Formula One got the remake, titled 'The Race II', which was given away as a free download. The 1988 original leans heavily on sampling for its rhythm track.

Yello frontman Dieter Meier directed the video for 'Big in Japan', a 1984 hit for which German band?

Alphaville's clip is Meier's work behind the camera, and he directs Yello's own videos as well.

Yello's Dieter Meier set a plaque in which German city's railway station in 1972, vowing to stand on it in 1994?

Kassel hosted the documenta 5 art exhibition for which Meier made the piece. He kept the promise 22 years later, standing on the plaque for the hour it named.

After a spell working at a bank, future Yello singer Dieter Meier tried earning his living as what?

Professional gambler was one of several false starts for Meier, who was already a millionaire through his banker father by the time he went to university.

Yello's Boris Blank, who builds the duo's music from samples, held which job before his music career?

Truck driver Blank spent his teenage years experimenting with tape loops, and recorded the sounds of a bucket of water and a homemade bamboo flute.

Which pioneering sampler, launched in 1979, did Yello buy in 1981 with a loan from Dieter Meier's father?

Fairlight CMI sampling transformed how the band worked. Blank built a personal sound archive on it that he puts in the hundreds of thousands of recordings.

Which singer of the Scottish band the Associates sang on three Yello albums between 1987 and 1991?

Billy Mackenzie wrote the words to 'The Rhythm Divine' and sang lead on 'Moon on Ice'. He returned in 1991 as guest singer on 'Capri Calling'.

Yello's first two albums appeared in America on Ralph Records, the label run by which avant-garde art collective?

The Residents ran Ralph from San Francisco, and the label issued Solid Pleasure and Claro Que Si alongside the collective's own records.

Yello's first video, for 1981's 'Pinball Cha Cha', joined a 1985 video exhibit at which New York institution?

Museum of Modern Art curators showed the clip four years after it was made. Meier had begun his career as a performance artist in the late 1960s.

In May 1990 Yello performed at the World Music Awards, held in which tiny European state?

Monaco hosted the ceremony, where the duo collected the award for the world's best-selling Swiss act.

Yello first staged full concerts only in 2016, selling out four nights at the Kraftwerk venue in which city?

Berlin got the shows as promotion for the album Toy, and a concert album titled Live in Berlin followed in November 2017.

Yello's 'Oh Yeah' was used in a 1980s television commercial for which chocolate bar?

Twix was among the brands that borrowed the song, which went on to become a repeated choice in television advertising.

Which Japanese car maker's commercial for Super Bowl XLVI, directed by Todd Phillips, featured Yello's 'Oh Yeah'?

Honda teased the spot two weeks before the game, and the teaser set off rumours that a film sequel was on the way.

Dieter Meier says he sang Yello's 'Oh Yeah' imagining himself as the relaxed king of which Pacific nation?

Tonga was Blank's suggestion: he asked Meier to picture its king relaxing on a beach. Blank had already rejected Meier's first lyrics as too complicated.

A year after its famous 1986 film debut, Yello's 'Oh Yeah' turned up in which Michael J. Fox comedy?

The Secret of My Success prompted the song's release as a single in Europe in September 1987, although the track is missing from the film's soundtrack album.

Yello composed and performed the soundtrack of which 1990 British comedy starring Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane?

Nuns on the Run credits Yello with its soundtrack, and 'The Race' features in the film too.

The video for Yello's 1985 single 'Desire', with around 150 dancers, was filmed in which capital city?

Havana was suggested by a friend of Meier's to match the song's Latin sound, and the shoot used three orchestras. Photographer Anton Corbijn joined the duo on the trip.

Which subject did Yello's Dieter Meier begin studying at university before dropping out without a degree?

Law did not hold Meier for long, and he drifted through other work before starting out as a performance artist in the late 1960s.

Dieter Meier of Yello sang 'I Want You Back' for which British house act's 2002 album Muzikizum?

X-Press 2 gave another guest spot on the same album to David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, who sang 'Lazy'.

Which British techno DJ, a remixer on Hands on Yello, produced a track on Yello's 1997 album Pocket Universe?

Carl Cox is credited as producer of the album's seventh track. Two years earlier he had been among the dance acts reworking the duo's songs for a tribute remix album.

Which Swedish singer was the lone guest vocalist on Yello's album Pocket Universe, singing the single 'To the Sea'?

Stina Nordenstam also wrote the song's words, and the single reached number 23 on the duo's home chart.

Which 1983 Yello single was later heard in the Steve Martin and John Candy film Planes, Trains and Automobiles?

Lost Again also introduced the final series of the BBC's Oxford Road Show. It was the fourth single from the album You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess.

Which track from Yello's 1980 debut album Solid Pleasure became a hit dance single when extended in 1981?

Bostich appears on the album in its original short version. A WestBam remix of it became a single from the 1995 remix album Hands on Yello.

Yello's B-side 'Blue Nabou' began in 1984 as advertising music for which French soft drink?

Orangina commissioned the piece, which the duo developed into a full track meant for their next album before relegating it to a B-side.

Boris Blank named Yello's track 'Koladi-ola' after how a pitched-up recording of which animal sounded to him?

A lion roaring on an album of animal sounds was the source. Raised by one octave, the roar sounded to Blank like the title's syllables.

Yello's 'The Race' opened which long-running American high school quiz show from 1990 until June 2017?

It's Academic used the track on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. until a new theme replaced it for the 2017–18 season.

Which sports television channel commonly used Yello's 'The Race' for its trailers in the early 1990s?

Eurosport is a pan-European network, so its trailers carried the 1988 single to sports viewers in many countries at once.