"Shivers" is a song by the Australian post-punk band the Boys Next Door, who would later become the Birthday Party. It is the tenth and final track from the band's debut studio album Door, Door, released in 1979 on Mushroom Records. It was released as the album's only single in May 1979, backed with the B-side "Dive Position".
Written by guitarist Rowland S Howard at age 16, "Shivers" is a post-punk ballad featuring ironic lyrics regarding teenage relationships and suicide. Originally intended as humorous by Howard, he felt later it had been misinterpreted due to frontman Nick Caves vocal delivery on the Boys Next Door version. Despite later distancing himself from the song, "Shivers" remained Howard's most requested song during his lifetime and was met with critical acclaim. It has since been cited as one of the most popular cult hits in Australian music.
Several versions of "Shivers" have been released—including demo and solo recordings by Howard—and it has been covered by a variety of artists, including Marie Hoy, Laura Jane Grace, Courtney Barnett, Julia Jacklin and the Screaming Jets.
Origin and recording
In 1976, at age 16 and as a member of the Melbourne punk rock band Young Charlatans, Howard wrote "Shivers". Discussing the song's origins, Howard said that "Shivers" was "intended as an ironic comment on the way that I felt that people I knew were making hysterical things out of what were essentially high school crushes". He further explained that the emotional responses of people he knew who were in relationships seemed "incredibly insincere and blown out of proportion" and inspired the cynical lyrics of the song.
Howard composed "Shivers" on an Ibanez Gibson Firebird copy, an electric guitar on which he performed on the first known recording of the song. Recorded as part of a series of demos for the Young Charlatans in 1978, it featured Howard on vocals and guitar, Ollie Olsen on guitar, Janine Hall on bass and Jeff Wegener on drums. They recorded the first (and second) version of 'Shivers' as part of their unreleased demos, which were made by Bruce Milne for a future single on his Au Go Go Records label.
During sessions for Door, Door at Richmond Recorders in Melbourne in January 1979, the Boys Next Door recorded "Shivers". Engineer Tony Cohen suggested that Howard perform the vocals for the track, arguing that his voice was best fitted for his own songs. However, the band's regular vocalist, Nick Cave, insisted on singing on the recording. Howard said later that as a result of Cave's vocals, "Shivers" was "interpreted completely differently and now the song, to most peoples' minds, is something completely different from what I intended it to be". In hindsight, Cave noted that Howard's vocals should have been recorded, as Cave was "never able to do that song justice".
Music and lyrics
"Shivers" is a post-punk ballad with a length of four minutes and thirty-seven seconds. It is set in common time () and has a slow tempo of 60 beats per minute. The song is composed in the key of A major and on the Boys Next Door version, Nick Cave's vocal range spans one octave from D4 to E5.
Howard wrote intentionally cynical lyrics to "Shivers" regarding relationships and suicide. According to Kelsey Munro of the Sydney Morning Herald, the song "exhibits Howard's enduring gallows humour in its wry treatment of the overwrought protagonist". The first lyrics "I've been contemplating suicide / but it really doesn't suit my style" have been also branded by the Sydney Morning Heralds Jake Wilson as "famous opening lines" and typical of Howard's "wry, guarded romanticism".
According to members of the Boys Next Door, Howard's songwriting was "more precious and stolid" than Cave's or guitarist–keyboardist Mick Harveys attempts, with "Shivers" and his other songs generally being centred "around a bassline". The final version of "Shivers" featured on Door, Door reflected this, and included only a two-chord progression and four musical instruments: guitar, bass, piano and violin.