Ulterior Motives

ⓘ This lostwave is classified as solved.

Ulterior Motives, formerly known as Everyone Knows That, was an unidentified 17-second snippet uploaded to WatZatSong on October 7th, 2021 by carl92. Initially, carl92 claimed that he discovered the song on a DVD backup file dated to 1999 but that he did not remember its origin. He insisted that the song could be from the 1980s era. The user has been inactive since December 2021. Since then, the search gradually gained prominence, with a subreddit dedicated to the song opening on June 19, 2023. Leads included the song originating from an unused Saleen car commercial, MTV broadcast, or advertisement. Prominent speculated artists were Roxette, Savage Garden, Richard Hozza, Osny Melo, White Mike Johnny Glove, Omega Tribe, and Second Guessing. On April 28, 2024, Ulterior Motives was found in an obscure 1986 pornographic film entitled Angels of Passion. The song was composed by Christopher and Adrian Booth. At that time, the r/everyoneknowsthat subreddit had over 40,000 members.

Background and composition

"Ulterior Motives" was recorded by Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth around 1986; at the time, they were members of the band Sweeney Todd. Because they were "doing anything to make money", they worked as production assistants in films. One of their friends, who made pornographic films, needed music for one of their works and, according to Christopher, "[t]hey gave us quite a bit of money just to give them some music to use behind the scenes". As such, "Ulterior Motives", which was originally recorded as a pop song, was used in the soundtrack of the pornographic film Angels of Passion (1986). Christopher said that the lyrics of the song were inspired by "a girl that cheated": "She was saying one thing and you found out that she did another thing". The song has been described as being of the new wave and synth-pop genres.

Online search

On 7 October 2021, user carl92 uploaded a 17-second snippet of the song to WatZatSong and asked for help in identifying it. He labelled it "Mid 80s, bad quality" and claimed that he "rediscover[ed] this sample between a bunch of very old files in a DVD backup. Probably I was simply learning how to capture audio and this was a left over." The song was theorized to have been recorded in the 1980s due to its 'stylistic similarities' to pop music of that time. The LinnDrum drum machine and the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer were theorized to have been used throughout the song; as such, the release date was theorized to be after 1983. Some users created reconstructions from the original snippet to have an idea of what the entire song could be like, while others theorized that the song was a hoax "planted by a troll". It became WatZatSong's "most infamous and enduring submission", receiving the most comments since WatZatSong launched in 2006.

The song gained popularity online in late 2022 and 2023, with a subreddit dedicated to finding the song and its artist being launched in June 2023. On 7 January 2024, two members of the subreddit were interviewed by French commercial TV network TF1.

The search for the song was initially slow to gain traction, but gained a dedicated following over time. Possible theorized sources for the song included a 1990s MTV broadcast, a piece of production music, or a commercial jingle; theorized artists included Roxette, Savage Garden, and Jason Paige. In August 2023, searchers found a registered song by the name "Ulterior Motives" in Canadian music database SOCAN under the shareholders' names "Booth Christopher David" and "Booth Philip".

Discovery

On 28 April 2024, Reddit users u/south_pole_ball and u/One-Truth-5867 identified the song, including its name and artists. The snippet was discovered to be from the 1986 pornographic film Angels of Passion. The users found that the Booth brothers had an entry in a copyright database for a song called "Ulterior Motives". From there, they discovered that Christopher Booth was a prolific songwriter for pornographic films, and watched his repertoire of films until they found the movie with the song.

On 29 April 2024, Booth publicly posted an Instagram post regarding the discovery of the song's source and the artists. He later uploaded a reel showcasing the original lyrics for the song within his recording studio, revealing that the original lyrics were "everyone knows it" instead of "everyone knows that". On 1 May 2024, in a Rolling Stone interview, Booth revealed plans to release a new album with songs similar to "Ulterior Motives"; he had already found the song's original "rhythm track" but not the vocal track, which will be re-recorded if not found.