"Slice of Heaven" is a single by New Zealand singer-songwriter

Dave Dobbyn Sir David Joseph Dobbyn (born 3 January 1957) is a New Zealand musician, singer–songwriter and record producer. In his early career he was a member of the rock group Th' Dudes and was the main creative force in pop band DD Smash. Since then h ...

with the band

Herbs Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnish (food), garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typi ...

, released in 1986 on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of the animated motion picture, '' Footrot Flats: The Dog's ~~Tail~~ Tale''. The single reached 1 on the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official Aotearoa Music Charts, formerly the Official New Zealand Music Chart (), is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The M ...

for eight weeks and on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...

for four weeks. It appears on Dobbyn's 1988 album, '' Loyal''.

Background

Dobbyn was writing in Sydney when he was given the opportunity to compose for the ''Footrot Flats'' film. He had previously used the line "Slice of Heaven" in the

DD Smash DD Smash was a New Zealand pop/rock band formed in 1980 by Dave Dobbyn after the breakup of Th' Dudes. The band briefly used the name "Dave Dobbyn's Divers" until drummer Peter Warren came up with "DD Smash". Dobbyn says the name "seemed to say ...

album ''The Optimist'', specifically "Don't Give Up" and chose to revisit it. He brought in Herbs to sing in the background based on his childhood experiences of Pacific gospel choirs.

Composition

The song incorporates a synthesised Japanese flute made with an

E-mu Emulator II The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy-disk storage that was manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Although it was not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was innovative in its integration ...

Reception

The song gained huge exposure in Australasia through the ''Footrot Flats'' trailer being shown before the popular ''

Crocodile Dundee ''Crocodile Dundee'' is a 1986 action comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and American actress Linda Kozlowski as reporter Sue Charlton. Inspired by the true-life ex ...

'' film, leading to high radio play before the single had been released. According to Dobbyn, one New Zealand rock station producer refused to play the song as they considered it "underproduced", but were forced to reconsider due to huge listener demand for the song. The song spent eight weeks at No. 1 in New Zealand and four weeks at No. 1 in Australia. It has been praised for the combination of Dobbyn's and Herbs' vocals. "Slice of Heaven" was awarded Best Song at the 1986 New Zealand Music Awards.

Music video

The video features Dobbyn, Herbs and dancers recording the song, interspersed with clips from the ''Footrot Flats'' film. The music video was recorded in Wellington's Marmalade Studios. Notably, due to time constraints, the clips of the singers performing are from their live recording takes rather than being a recreation.

Alternate versions

An alternate version of the song featured in the closing credits of the ''Footrot Flats'' movie, featuring less emphasis on the Herbs vocals and more focus on the percussion and bass of the song. In 2021, Dobbyn released a version in the

Māori language Māori (; endonym: 'the Māori language', commonly shortened to ) is an Eastern Polynesian languages, Eastern Polynesian language and the language of the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. The southernmost membe ...

titled "Hine Ruhi". In 2023, Australian-New Zealand band Coterie performed a cover of the song during their 2023 Australasian tour. After a strong response from fans, Coterie contacted Dobbyn to collaborate on recording a new version of the song, which was released as a single in September 2023. This version reached number four on the New Zealand artists singles chart.

Legacy

"Slice of Heaven" was included in '' Nature's Best—New Zealand's Top 30 Songs of All Time'', coming in at No. 7. It was voted No. 1 in 2009 by C4 viewers as New Zealand's favourite song and is often considered an unofficial national anthem of New Zealand, especially after its usage in New Zealand tourism ads in the 1980s and 1990s. It has also become synonymous with the ''Footrot Flats'' film.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1986 singles 1986 songs 1987 singles APRA Award winners Dave Dobbyn songs Herbs (band) songs Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in New Zealand Songs written by Dave Dobbyn Kiwiana