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Pepe Deluxé

Before You Leave

The Finnish trio Pepe Deluxé's breakbeat-funk hit from Super Sound, rewritten from their own Woman in Blue around a Tony Hatch sample, carried to the UK top 20 by a Levi's campaign in 2001 and heard here in its 2025 remaster.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Pepe Deluxé’s Before You Leave is breakbeat, funk and big beat from Helsinki by way of a Brighton label: a groovy, playful record that Hot Press called a fine piece of musical breakbeat funk.

Song Summary

The song began as another one. When Levi’s wanted the band’s Woman in Blue for a jeans campaign, the band says, EMI and Sony quoted £500,000 to clear its Nina Simone and Tony Hatch samples. Sony offered a deal on the Tony Hatch part, provided EMI got nothing, so instead of paying for both, Pepe Deluxé hired a musicologist, rewrote the lyrics and melody, and released the result as Before You Leave. It is still built on a Tony Hatch composition: the closing track of his 1970 album with the Satin Brass, Sounds of the 70’s. Its release credits name Jari Salo, the band’s James Spectrum, and Tony Hatch, and split the publishing between Catskills and Sony ATV.

Musical Breakdown

Main Section

No review we found walks through the track, so this page describes less than usual. What the sources give is its frame: a breakbeat-funk groove, the Tony Hatch material underneath, and a new vocal line where Nina Simone’s voice used to be. The album version runs about five and a half minutes; the official video, directed by Miikka Lommi in 2001 with Saimi Hoyer as the Woman in Blue, uses an edit of about three and a half.

Concepts in Focus

Before You Leave is a lesson in sampling and its price. The band’s debut, Super Sound, was so heavily sampled that clearance problems forced a new version of the album, with many tracks re-created from cleared samples or played on live instruments.

The song is an alternate version of their own Woman in Blue: same band, same vibe, as they put it, new melody and words. And what is embedded here is a remastering: the 25th anniversary remaster of 2025, which changes the overall sound of the album recording but not its arrangement. For the voice that had to go, hear Nina Simone – Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat’s Heavenly House Mix).

Artistic Context

Pepe Deluxé formed in Helsinki in 1996: DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola), JA-Jazz (Tomi Castrén) and James Spectrum (Jari Salo), experimenting with hip-hop, big beat, breakbeat and downtempo. Their demo EP Three Times a Player was chosen downtempo album of the month by the British magazine Muzik and led to a contract with Brighton’s Catskills Records. Later albums turned to psychedelia, baroque pop and surf rock.

Impact and Reception

Levi’s used the track in its worldwide campaign of 2001, which won the Gold Lion for best use of music at the Cannes advertising festival. The single reached number 20 in the UK, giving Catskills the chart hit Hot Press had predicted, and the band says Sony ended up licensing the whole album. In 2025 they reissued Super Sound for its 25th anniversary and put Before You Leave out again with new remixes. Listen for the record that a sample bill rewrote.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain why a sample must be cleared, and what an artist can do when clearing it costs too much.
  • Tell an alternate version, a remaster and a remix of one song apart.
  • Describe how an advertising campaign could make a hit of an instrumental-minded record around 2001.

Listening guide

  1. the groove What Hot Press called a fine piece of musical breakbeat funk when the single came out in 2001.
  2. the Tony Hatch material The song is built on a 1970 Tony Hatch composition, the closing track of his album with the Satin Brass, Sounds of the 70's.
  3. the vocal line The new lyrics and melody the band wrote, with a musicologist's help, to replace the Nina Simone sample of Woman in Blue.
  4. the length This album version runs about five and a half minutes; the official video, directed by Miikka Lommi, is a shorter edit of about three and a half.

Concepts in this track

alternate version

58 tracks

A second finished recording of the same song by the same artist, with a different arrangement, tempo or sound rather than a reworking by another producer. Comparing two versions shows how much of a song's mood comes from production rather than from melody and words.

remastering

10 tracks

Preparing a finished recording again at the mastering stage, the last step before release: adjusting its loudness, tonal balance and dynamics, often from the original tapes and for a new format or reissue. Unlike a remix, a remaster leaves the arrangement and the balance between instruments as they were and changes only the overall sound.

sampling

63 tracks

Taking a fragment of an existing recording and reusing it in a new one, as a loop, a chop or a texture. Sampling is central to hip-hop and dance music and raises questions of credit and copyright.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. The band rewrote a song rather than pay £500,000 for its samples. Is the result a new song, or the old one in disguise?
  2. Why would a jeans company want a breakbeat record from Finland for a worldwide campaign?
  3. A remaster changes only the overall sound. Can you hear a difference between an old CD and a remaster, and does it matter?

References

  1. Wikipedia. Pepe Deluxé. Encyclopedia
  2. Hot Press. Pepe DeLuxe, 'Before You Leave' [Catskills] (2001). Review
  3. YouTube (Pepe Deluxé Official). Pepe Deluxé - Before You Leave 25 years (2025). Artist
  4. YouTube (Pepe Deluxé - Topic). Before You Leave (25th Anniversary Remaster) (2025). Label
  5. Originals. Tony Hatch & The Satin Brass: Sounds of the 70's. Database
  6. Bandcamp (Pepe Deluxé). Super Sound 25 (25th Anniversary Edition) (2025). Artist
  7. MusicBrainz. Before You Leave (recording). Database

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