Dave Stewart's Late '80s Hit Instrumental "Lily Was Here" Was a Happy Accident

When Dave Stewart released "Lily Was Here" in 1989 Miami Vice was ending its five-season run, the Berlin Wall was about to collapse, and George H.W. Bush was President. In other words, the '80s era was just about over, but not before it gifted us with this smooth as silk instrumental.  

"Lily Was Here" is a jazz duet, with the "singers" being Stewart's guitar and Candy Dulfer's saxophone. Listening to it today with its repeating sultry rift is wistfulness overload. Like a musical TARDIS, the melody instantly transports you back to the decade of decadence. It makes you ache for a different time and place, whether your memory of the tail end of the '80s involved sniffing something you shouldn't have at a party, shopping for a Nintendo Game Boy, or making out with a date in the back of a Ford Escort. In other words, this song is a mood. Speaking of Miami Vice, it would have fit perfectly on the show. 

Something else was ending around the time this song was recorded. Stewart, of course, made up one half of The Eurythmics, the enormously successful pop/rock/New Wave band he formed with former lover Annie Lennox. The duo was on the verge of splitting up and he was starting to pursue solo projects.

What Is the Story Behind "Lily Was Here"?

His first of these was composing the soundtrack for a Dutch film called De Kassiere (Lily Was Here). The movie itself and its plot sounds really grim. It follows a supermarket cashier, Lily, who gets pregnant and then turns to a life of crime after the father of her child is killed by a gang.

The film wasn't exactly a box office smash and is virtually unknown today, but like most movies, it needed music to accompany the scenes. For this job Stewart enlisted the help of beautiful Dutch saxophone player Candy Dulfer, who had already performed with Madonna and Prince. Stewart learned of her through one of his Eurthymics bandmates, who had a cassette of her sax playing. Somewhat of a child prodigy, Dulfer had been playing the saxophone since the age of six and started her own band called Funky Stuff when she was 14 years old. Only 20 years old at the time she collaborated with Stewart, she had never recorded before.

She shares credits as the cowriter for three of the tracks on the De Kassiere soundtrack. But the one tune—credited only to Stewart—that had worldwide success turned out to be nothing more than a well-executed impromptu jam session. That's right; "Lily Was Here" was a happy accident and even more remarkably, recorded in just one take. It would have been forgotten had Stewart not decided it was good enough to not only include on the soundtrack but released as a single. 

It was a wise decision: "Lily Was Here" reached number one in the Netherlands and stayed there for five weeks. It was then released as a single in the United Kingdom, Europe, and United States. It reached number six in the UK and just shy of the top ten in the US, tapping out at number 11, which is still pretty successful for a song without lyrics. 

Virtually no one knows the movie, but the song has endured and has been covered by saxophone players all over the world, most notably Areta Chmiel and Tom Evans. 

The song's success prompted Dulfer to release her debut solo album, Saxuality, the following year. She's gone on to have a remarkable career as an in-demand saxophonist, collaborating with notable musicians such as Van Morrison and performing live with Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons, and Tower of Power. Being tall, blonde, and beautiful hasn't hurt, either—Prince even paid homage to her in his song "Partyman" from the 1989 Batman soundtrack by including the tongue-in-cheek lyric, "When I want sax, I call Candy." She also appeared in the music video for the song. She worked with him again in the 1990s and lived in Minneapolis for six months, spending a lot of time at Paisley Park. 

She still performs today and her most recent album, We Never Stop, was released in 2022. But "Lily Was Here" remains her most recognizable and enduring tune thanks to Stewart. They've performed it together on stage many times since the record's release. 

Here's the official music video for the song. Kick off your Reebok pumps, pour yourself a cosmopolitan, and get ready to be transported to another time: