Fly High Little Butterfly is a 1979 single by the European disco group

Arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foliate ...

. Contrary to other releases by Arabesque, the song was not commercially released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, but became a moderate commercial success in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, where it was the fourth single cut released from the disco album ''Friday Night'' (1979). Heike Rimbeau sang the lead vocals, accompanied by Karen Ann Tepperis and Michaela Rose on backup vocals. The song tells the story of a "little butterfly" who has a passion for singing and dancing from a very young age, and strives to be like her mother, who encouraged to "fly high" and avidly pursue her goals and dreams. "Fly High Little Butterfly" is arranged in

4/4 time A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in musical notation, music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure (bar (music), bar). The ...

and the

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

is driven by a melodic string section, electric rhythm bassline guitars and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

riffs over a

four-on-the-floor Four-on-the-floor (or four-to-the-floor) is a rhythm used primarily in dance genres such as disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4)."The Dance ...

beat. The song was exclusively released as a

, where it stalled at #33 on the Oricon Singles charts for three weeks.Okamoto, Satoshi (2011). Single Chart Book: Complete Edition 1968-2010 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. It later appeared on the group's compilation albums ''The Best Of Volume 1'' (2004) and ''Complete Single Collection'' (2010).

Track listing

# A. "Fly High Little Butterfly" - 3:26 # B. "Give It Up" - 3:57

References

{{authority control 1979 songs 1979 singles Arabesque (group) songs Number-one singles in Japan Victor Records singles