Take That

Take That are an English pop group from Manchester, formed in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the group's lead singer and primary songwriter, with Owen and Williams initially providing backing vocals and Donald and Orange serving primarily as dancers.

The group have had 28 top 40 singles and 17 top 5 singles in the United Kingdom, 12 of which have reached number 1, as well as having seven number 1 albums. Internationally the band have had 56 number 1 singles and 37 number 1 albums. They have received eight Brit Awards—winning awards for Best British Group and Best British Live Act.

Robbie Williams left the band in 1995 while the four remaining members completed their world tour and released a final single before splitting up in 1996. After filming a 2005 documentary about the group and releasing a new greatest hits album, a four-piece Take That without Williams officially announced a 2006 reunion tour around the UK, entitled The Ultimate Tour. On 9 May 2006, it was announced that the group were set to record new material together once again; their fourth studio album, Beautiful World, was released in 2006 and was followed up with The Circus, in 2008. The group achieved new success as a four-piece, scoring a string of chart hits across the UK and Europe while taking the number of records sold to 45 million worldwide.

Back for Good

"Back for Good" is a song recorded by British band Take That for their third studio album, Nobody Else (1995). It was written and produced by the lead singer Gary Barlow, with an additional production done by Chris Porter.

The song topped the UK Singles Chart, and achieved great success in many countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain and the United States.

Background

Written by Gary Barlow, who also sang lead vocals on the track, it was their sixth UK chart-topper, and their only US top ten hit. Barlow claims he wrote the song in fifteen minutes. It was initially unveiled at the 1995 BRIT Awards, and such was the demand for the single that the release date was brought forward and the song made available to the media an unprecedented six weeks before release.

The song appeared on most releases in a slightly remixed form, which added some extra instrumentation including additional drum beats. Some releases featured both radio and album versions. The song was a big hit in Brazil during the years of 1995 and 1996, due to soap opera Explode Coração on which the song appeared as one of the main songs on the TV show's soundtrack. Group member Robbie Williams also recorded a Hard Rock live version, which was a B-side to his 1998 single "Angels". The song was featured on the final episode of the second series of Spaced, in which Tim, Brian, and Mike, along with Mike's Territorial Army buddies, attempt to play the song for Marsha, a la the boombox scene from Say Anything... It also featured in the final episode of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's The Office as a love theme for characters Tim (Martin Freeman) and Dawn (Lucy Davis). Gary Barlow stated on ITV1's An Audience with Take That Live broadcast on 2 December 2006 that there were 89 recorded versions of the song by other artists.

For Good

"For Good" is a musical number from the hit musical Wicked. It is sung as a duet between Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda, as a farewell to each other. The song's music and lyrics were written by composer Stephen Schwartz.

Context

The song is performed towards the end of the musical. In it, the two are singing farewell to one another. Just prior to the song, Elphaba gives Glinda the Grimmerie and tells her that it is now up to her to continue Elphaba's cause. After this song, Elphaba leaves and is supposedly melted by Dorothy (it later turns out that this was an elaborate set-up to fool the citizens of Oz into thinking she was dead so they would stop hunting her). In the end, she and Fiyero, turned into "The Scarecrow" by one of Elphaba's spells gone awry, run away together.

It is the climax, and one of the most well-known songs of the show. It is reprised as part of the show's finale.

Lyrics

The song's lyrics concern how both Elphaba and Glinda have been changed by their friendship with each other. Glinda starts out by saying that, while she doesn't know if it is true that people come into each other's lives for a reason, "I know I'm who I am today because I knew you." Similarly, Elphaba tells Glinda that "whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend." Elphaba also asks Glinda to forgive her for anything she might have done wrong, to which Glinda replies that "there's blame to share", but both agree that "none of it seems to matter anymore." Schwartz said after the show premiered that to begin the song, he asked his daughter what she would say if she would never see her best friend again, and her answer became the first verse of "For Good".

Gary Barlow

Gary Barlow OBE (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter, pianist, composer and record producer. He is frontman and lead vocalist of British pop-group Take That and served as head judge on series 8, 9 and 10 of The X Factor UK. Barlow is one of Britain's most successful songwriters, having written fourteen Number 1 singles and twenty four top 10 hits. He has had three Number 1 singles, six top 10 singles and two Number 1 albums as a solo artist, and has had seventeen top 5 hits, twelve Number 1 singles and seven Number 1 albums with Take That. He is also a six-time recipient of the Ivor Novello Award and has sold over 50 million records worldwide. He was appointed an OBE in 2012 for services to music and charity.

Early life and beginnings

Gary Barlow was born on 20 January 1971 in Frodsham, Cheshire, the second son of Colin and Marjorie Barlow. In Barlow's autobiography, he relates that his love of music began at an early age.

He cites watching a performance of "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode on Top of the Pops when he was ten years old as a main influence of his love of music, describing it as 'mesmerising'. Barlow subsequently asked for a keyboard for Christmas. He spent most of his spare time teaching himself to play his favourite songs.

Human back

The human back is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck and the shoulders. It is the surface opposite to the chest, its height being defined by the vertebral column (commonly referred to as the spine or backbone) and its breadth being supported by the ribcage and shoulders. The spinal canal runs through the spine and provides nerves to the rest of the body.

Structure

The central feature of the human back is the vertebral column, specifically the length from the top of the thoracic vertebrae to the bottom of the lumbar vertebrae, which houses the spinal cord in its spinal canal, and which generally has some curvature that gives shape to the back. The ribcage extends from the spine at the top of the back (with the top of the ribcage corresponding to the T1 vertebra), more than halfway down the length of the back, leaving an area with less protection between the bottom of the ribcage and the hips. The width of the back at the top is defined by the scapula, the broad, flat bones of the shoulders.