Ulterior Motives

ⓘ This lostwave is classified as solved.
Ulterior Motives
Artist(s)	Who's Who (Christopher Saint Booth & Phillip Adrian Booth)
Genre	Synth-Pop
Year	1986
Status	Solved; Almost full version and remake available
Original poster	Carl92
Search duration	2021 - 2024
File:Ulteriormotives.wav

Ulterior Motives (previously known as "Everyone Knows That") is a solved synth-pop song uploaded to WatZatSong by Carl92 in 2021. On April 28th, 2024, it was discovered that the song was recorded by Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth and appeared in the 1986 adult film "Angels of Passion".

Background (October 2021 - July 2022)

On October 7th, 2021, WatZatSong user Carl92 posted a 17-second snippet of the song and asked for help identifying it. He claimed to have discovered the snippet in a DVD backup from 1999 among a number of very old files, and that it was a leftover from when he was learning to record audio.

Due to the song's stylistic similarities to 1980s pop music, particularly after 1983, when the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and LinnDrum LM-2 drum machine thought to have been used in the song were popular, it was assumed to have been recorded during that decade.

The first major lead for the song came on June 30th, 2022, when WatZatSong user niski discovered that the song has a pilot tone of 15.734 kHz, which is the horizontal frequency of NTSC CRT TVs, implying that the recording could have been captured from a CRT TV tuned to a North American TV station.

The song's origins were widely assumed to be in Asia (mostly Japan) because certain pronunciations in the lyrics were perceived to not sound like a native English speaker.

The song was first posted on YouTube on October 10th, 2021 by now-terminated user Jay Kay and r/lostwave on October 13th, 2021 by user Null42x64. The song began to gain popularity on WatZatSong in mid-2022 and early 2023, and on July 11th, 2022, the song was popularized on Reddit after it was reposted on r/lostwave by user Excellent_Ad_497.

Notable Former Theories (2022-2024)

Saleen Car Commercial (May 6th - June 15th, 2023)

In May 2023, YouTube users Bloodhound and glxtchedghost commented on a reupload of the song by now-terminated YouTube user Jay Kay, claiming that the song was featured in a commercial for car manufacturer Saleen, with the latter claiming that their father worked for Saleen and had approved the use of the song for an unreleased McDonald's Big Win Monopoly promotional advertisement.

On June 15th, 2023, WatZatSong user Kyle96 claimed to have contacted Saleen's customer service, who stated that the song had never appeared in any of their advertisements, debunking the lead.

Polish McDonald's (September 20th - October 5th, 2023)

On September 20th, 2023, Reddit user Alan2237 claimed to have heard the song on in-store radio at McDonald's in 2012, and that the song was recorded for in-store music and commercials.

Ten days later, the user posted on the r/everyoneknowsthat subreddit and claimed to have discovered that McDonald's in Poland had a music playlist provided by a marketing company called Mood Media, eventually distributing a fake playlist of 65 songs called logs.txt which they claimed they received from a "Mood Media consultant".

On October 5th, 2023, the lead was debunked when Reddit user annabelsnd contacted Mood Media and confirmed that they had no records of the logs.txt playlist and that Everyone Knows That was not in their archives.

Joe Rinoie (October 12th - November 12th, 2023)

On October 12th, 2023, Reddit user P8L8 suggested that Japanese electronic music producer Joe Rinoie and his band D-Project may have created the song, as he had created over 400 songs for Japanese car commercials, many of which are unavailable online, and Everyone Knows That was thought to be of Japanese origin.

On November 12th, 2023, Reddit user StarLink97 debunked the lead after contacting Rinoie via Facebook, who confirmed that he did not create the song.

Savage Garden (October 16th, 2023 - February 11th, 2024)

On October 18th, 2023, Reddit user Hey-Youngblood- suggested the Australian pop duo Savage Garden as possible creators of the song based on their perceived similar vocals and musical styles.

On November 17th, 2023, Darren Hayes, the vocalist of Savage Garden, made a post on Twitter simply reading "Everyone Knows That" leading to increased speculation that he was the vocalist behind the song, and that a full reveal could be imminent, though some users mentioned that he could be trolling the people searching for the song.

In mid-December 2023, Darren Hayes deleted his tweet, but speculation remained on the subreddit about whether Savage Garden were behind the song. The last known post about the subject was made in February 2024 by user TwilightOfGhosts, who suggested that the band played the song live on the TV show Musica Sí in 1999.

Osny Melo (February 9th, 2024 - February 11th, 2024)

On February 9th, 2024, Discord user SlenderGary discovered Brazilian musician Osny Melo, who shared vocal and musical similarities with the song and had worked in the Japanese music industry in the 1980s, creating commercials, TV shows, and movie soundtracks.

On February 11th, 2024, the lead was debunked by Reddit users numzyclumzy00 and kglove34, who contacted him and confirmed that he didn't create the song.

Omega Tribe (Carlos Toshiki/Koichi Fujita) (April 5th, 2024 - April 28th, 2024)

On April 4th, 2024, TikTok user vincemanuele discovered a potential lead while debunking a fake post that claimed a cassette tape with music created by Martie Echito contained the song. After contacting Martie Echito, he claimed that the song was produced by Japanese musician Koichi Fujita between 1984 and 1988 and was called "Material Motives". Since there was no way to contact Koichi Fujita because he died in 2009, the search team looked into Fujita's music project Omega Tribe, specifically the band's second vocalist, Carlos Toshiki, who sounded most similar to the song.

Discovery

On April 27th, 2024, One-Truth-5867, a moderator of the r/everyoneknowsthat subreddit, discovered a scene from the 1984 incest pornographic film Taboo III, which featured a song titled Till The End Of Time that sounded very similar to Everyone Knows That. In the description, the song was credited to Chris & Phil Booth, who he remembered were already suggested as leads by Reddit user HeyScarlett, who had discovered a listing for the song Ulterior Motives in the SOCAN Canadian music database on August 18th, 2023, but had contacted the wrong Christopher Booth.

On the night of April 27th, 2024, One-Truth-5867 skimmed over 12 hours of pornographic films credited to Christopher Saint Booth from IMDB, but did not find the song.

On April 28th, 2024, One-Truth-5867 posted the announcement of the lead's discovery to Reddit, and later that day, fellow moderator south_pole_ball joined him in the search and eventually discovered the song in the 1986 pornographic film Angels of Passion. After being flooded with messages, Christopher Saint Booth confirmed that he wrote the song in an Instagram post acknowledging the discovery of the song's source.

On April 30th, 2024, Christopher Saint Booth uploaded an Instagram reel showcasing the original lyrics sheet for the song, revealing that the original lyrics were "Everyone knows it," rather than "Everyone knows that."

Shortly after discovering the song, the Booth brothers began working on a recreation of it, which they documented on Instagram. All of the instrumental tracks for the song were found, but the original vocals were not. Additionally, they chose to re-record the guitar track with the original MIDI guitar used in the song.

The song was officially released on June 23rd, 2024, under the Booth brothers' alias "Who's Who" alongside twelve other lost songs on the album "Ulterior Motives: The Lost Album."

Lyrics

Official Lyrics (Verse 1)

Something in your eyes, makes me realize

How strange it seems

Something in your smile, could be up on trial

Of broken dreams

(Pre-Chorus)

You're counting all your sheep in disguise

Caught up in the world of lies

(Chorus)

Everyone knows it, you've got

Ulterior motives, tell me truth

Every move shows it, ah ha

Don't you realize that you're telling lies

(Verse 2)

If something's on your mind, spit it out and find

The perfect scam

All your truth and dares, do you really care?

Just who I am

(Pre-Chorus)

You're always biting more than you can chew

When will you realize the truth

(Chorus)

Everyone knows it, you've got

Ulterior motives, tell me truth

I got it from the wise that you're telling lies...

References

• Incomplete List Of Debunked Leads (September 2023)