"Dog Days Are Over" is a song by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine from their debut album Lungs (2009).
A day later on 2 December 2008 the single was released in download and seven-inch vinyl format through IAMSOUND Records in the US.
"Dog Days Are Over" was recorded with no instruments in a studio the "size of a loo" in the Crystal Palace area of London.
"Dog Days Are Over" also features musicians Tom "Moth" Monger (harp), Bruce White (viola), Everton Nelson (violin), Christopher Lloyd Hayden (drums) and Rob Ackroyd (guitar).
While not as immediately catchy as "Kiss with a Fist," it's an urgent, pounding, almost bluesy anthem which shows off Florence's voice to its very best advantage".
It's a masterful yet primal tour-de-force of folk/pop/rock that reveals a beguiling talent that should surely be regarded as one of the finds of the musical year.
"Dog Days Are Over" succeeds in capturing a powerfully 'live' studio sound that sinks, swells and explodes in a series of unconventional verse/choruses that, accentuated by Welch's snarling".
[11] Following performances on Top of the Pops, Jools Holland and uses in television advertisement for Slumdog Millionaire and Eat, Pray, Love, "Dog Days Are Over" began to receive increasing amounts of digital downloads, despite not having been re-released.
On 10 January 2010, "Dog Days Are Over" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 23, marking its highest peak to date.
[12] On 15 January 2010, "Dog Days Are Over" entered the Irish Singles Chart for the first time, reaching a peak of number 35.
[14] Following the performance of "Dog Days Are Over" on the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, the track sold 96,000 digital downloads which signified a 257% increase over the previous week and leaped to number 21 giving Florence her first top 30 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
At the climax of the song Florence runs by all the people and as she does, they burst into ash in a flash of brightly coloured light.
Throughout the video she wears full-body white make-up with intricate clothing and vivid red eye-liner and blusher.
The cast of Glee performed the song in the episode "Special Education" on 30 November 2010, with Jenna Ushkowitz (as Tina Cohen-Chang) and Amber Riley (as Mercedes Jones) singing the lead.
The cast version was also released as a digital single, and charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 22, one space below a bounding return of the original to its post-VMA peak.
"[21] A Finalist of Indonesian Idol (season 8) Yuka Tamada sang it for the first week of the "spectacular" shows.
In 2011, it also featured on the first season of The Voice (United States), with Vicci Martinez singing the version along with a stage full of drummers.
California-based hardcore punk band, Stick To Your Guns, also covered this song as a part of a Sumerian Records tribute compilation.