"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the British

ambient house Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It ...

group

the Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential ...

. It was originally released in November 1990 on the

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

Big Life Big Life was a record label established in 1987 by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. It featured hundreds of releases from artists such as The Orb, Stare, Yazz, Junior Reid, Coldcut, De La Soul, and Damage. In 1999, the label was put into receiver ...

and peaked at number 87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album '' The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld''. "Little Fluffy Clouds" was re-released several times with different

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

s, with its 1993 re-release reaching number 10 in the UK. It ranked number 275 in ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

s list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

ranked it number 40 on their list of the "Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s".

Production

Alex Paterson Alex Paterson (also known as Dr Alex Paterson, born Duncan Alexander Robert Paterson; 15 October 1959) is an English musician and co-founder of ambient house group the Orb, in which he has worked since its inception. Life and work Paterson at ...

had previously worked with

Jimmy Cauty James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo the KLF, co-founder of the Orb and as the man who K Foundation Burn a Million Quid, burnt £1 million ...

. Upon Cauty's departure from the Orb, Paterson began work on "Little Fluffy Clouds" with ex-

Killing Joke Killing Joke were an English rock music, rock band formed in Notting Hill, London, in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (musician), Youth (bass). Their first album, ''Killing Joke ...

member Martin "Youth" Glover. However, because of other production obligations, Glover did not become a permanent member of the Orb. Kris "Thrash" Weston joined the Orb soon after. Weston mixed and engineered several versions of "Little Fluffy Clouds", including the version on '' The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld''.

Samples

"Little Fluffy Clouds" makes extensive use of clips from an interview with American singer

Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. Over the course of a career that spans five decades and 15 studio albums, she has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, pop, soul, an ...

in which she recalls picturesque images of her childhood. The samples are widely but incorrectly believed to have come from a conversation between Jones and

LeVar Burton Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host. He played Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994), Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries ''Roots'' (1977 ...

on the children's television program ''

Reading Rainbow ''Reading Rainbow'' is an American educational children's television series that originally aired on PBS and afterward PBS Kids from July 11, 1983 to November 10, 2006, with reruns continuing to air until August 28, 2009. 155 30-minute episodes ...

'', The samples come from a CD of interviews with Rickie Lee Jones included with the box set promoting Jones' album '' Flying Cowboys''. The interviewer is not credited on the recording or in the boxed set's liner notes but is identified as Carl Arrington in the box set's cover letter. :Interviewer: "What were the skies like when you were young?" :Jones: "They went on forever – They - When I w- We lived in Arizona, and the skies always had little fluffy clouds in 'em, and, uh... they were long... and clear and... there were lots of stars at night. And, uh, when it would rain, it would all turn - it- They were beautiful, the most beautiful skies as a matter of fact. Um, the sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire, and the clouds would catch the colours everywhere. That's uh, neat 'cause I used to look at them all the time, when I was little. You don't see that. You might still see them in the desert." Jones' record company initially sued Big Life over the unauthorized use of her voice. Eventually, a settlement was reached out of court for an undisclosed sum of money for the use of her voice on the Orb's recording. In 2016, Paterson said the record company paid $5,000 to use the sample. Asked about the sample in an interview years later, Jones referred to the Orb as "those fuckers." The song also uses a harmonica sample from

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

's "Man with a Harmonica" (from the film '' Once Upon a Time in the West'') and parts of ''

Electric Counterpoint ''Electric Counterpoint'' is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements, "Fast," "Slow", and "Fast". Reich has offered two versions of the piece: one for electric guitar and tape (the ...

'', a piece for multi-tracked guitars composed by

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

and recorded by

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He was the leader of the Pat Metheny Group (1977–2010) and continues to work in various small-combo, duet, and solo settings, as well as other side pr ...

. According to Glover, the inspiration for the track came when an Orb fan who worked in a Birmingham record shop sent him a tape with ''Electric Counterpoint'' on one side and the Rickie Lee Jones interview on the other. Reich was "genuinely flattered" by the Orb's use of his work and instructed his record company not to sue. Despite this, the Orb did receive a letter from Reich's lawyers several years later, but Paterson described Reich as "a proper gentleman: he wanted 20% from then on and asked us to do a remix of one of his tunes, which we did". Alex Paterson also suggested that the drum track is sampled: "If anyone actually knew where the drums on 'Little Fluffy Clouds' came from, they'd all just die, but I'm not at liberty to tell. Record companies have always warned me, 'Don't tell anyone where you got your samples until we get them cleared!'". He later said that the drum track was sampled from

Harry Nilsson Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experi ...

's album ''

Nilsson Schmilsson ''Nilsson Schmilsson'' is the seventh studio album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records on November 11, 1971. It was Nilsson's most commercially successful work, producing three of his best-known songs. Among these was the n ...

'', and others have specifically identified this as a sample of Jim Gordon's drum solo from " Jump Into the Fire", slowed down approximately from 45 to 33 rpm, starting at 3:58. The use of a slowed-down "Jump Into the Fire" was acknowledged by Paterson in a 2016 interview with ''The Guardian'', in which he also said the track included a

Lee "Scratch" Perry Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development ...

sample. In 2006 a previously uncredited sample from "Little Fluffy Clouds" was recognised by

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

label director Dan Waite, who identified the first voice heard on the song as that of his cousin

John Waite John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English rock singer and musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single "Missing You (John Waite song), Missing You", which reached No. 1 on th ...

. A 1990 John Waite

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

broadcast for the programme '' You and Yours'' was sampled and features at the beginning of the track. John Waite can clearly be heard saying, "Over the past few years, to the traditional sounds of an English summer - the drone of lawnmowers, and the smack of leather on willow - has been added a new noise...". In 2013, the Orb's management asked John Waite to join them on their 25th Anniversary tour to read the classic line live on stage.

Commercial reception

"Little Fluffy Clouds" reached number 87 on the UK Singles Chart and was a dancefloor success. After the popularity of following Orb albums, "Little Fluffy Clouds" was re-released several times, including a 1993 edition which peaked at number 10 on the UK chart.

Legacy

In 2010,

ranked "Little Fluffy Clouds" number 40 on their list of the "Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s". In 2014, it was ranked number 275 in ''

s list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2022, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' ranked it number 169 in their "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" list. In 2025, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine ranked the song number 99 in their "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time".

Track listings

* 7-inch: Big Life / BLR 33 (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds even Inch MK 1 (4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clounds mbient MK 1 (4:29) * 12-inch: Big Life / BLR 33T (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds ance MK 2 (8:26) # "Into The Fourth Dimension ssenes Beyond Control (7:03) # "Little Fluffy Clounds mbient MK 1 (4:29) * 12-inch: Big Life / BLR 33R (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds (Drum & Vox Version)" (7:10) # "Little Fluffy Clouds even Inch MK 1 (4:05) # "Into the Fourth Extension" (9:05) * CD: Big Life / BLRD 98 (UK) # "Little Fluffy Clouds even Inch MK 1 (4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clouds ance MK 2 (8:26) # "Into The Fourth Dimension ssenes Beyond Control (7:03) # "Little Fluffy Clounds mbient MK 1 (4:29) * 12-inch: Mercury / 865139-1 (US) # "Little Fluffy Clouds umulonimbus Mix (6:10) # "Little Fluffy Clouds is Joint Don't Argue Mix (6:38) # "Little Fluffy Clouds even Inch MK 1 (4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clouds nner Master Mix (3:58) # "Outlands ountain Of Elisha (8:00) * CD: Mercury / 865139-2 (US) # "Little Fluffy Clouds even Inch MK 1 (4:05) # "Little Fluffy Clouds nner Master Mix (3:58) # "Little Fluffy Clouds umulonimbus Mix (6:10) # "Little Fluffy Clouds ance MK 2 (8:26) # "Little Fluffy Clouds eavyweight Dub (6:30) # "Outlands ountain Of Elisha (8:00)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1990 singles The Orb songs 1990 songs Songs written by Youth (musician) Big Life Records singles