Children (composition)
1995 single by Robert Miles
"Children" is an instrumental composition by Italian composer Robert Miles. It was first released in Italy in January 1995 as part of the EP Soundtracks on Joe T. Vannelli's DBX label, but it did not chart. Vannelli brought the track to a nightclub in Miami where it was heard by Simon Berry of Platipus Records. Berry worked with Vannelli and James Barton (of Liverpool's Cream nightclub) to release the composition in November 1995 as the lead single from Miles's debut album, Dreamland (1996). "Children" was certified gold and platinum in several countries and reached number one in more than 12 countries; it was Europe's most successful single of 1996. Two different music videos were produced to accompany the song, directed by Matt Amos and Elizabeth Bailey, respectively. In 2025, Billboard magazine ranked "Children" among "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time".
Background and writing
Miles gave two inspirations for the writing of "Children". One was as a response to photographs of child Bosnian war victims that his father had brought home from a humanitarian mission in the former Yugoslavia; and the other, inspired by his career as a DJ, was to create a track to end DJ sets, intended to calm rave attendants prior to their driving home as a means to reduce car accident deaths. "Children" cost £150 to record.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2606509. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995, 1996 and 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Children (composition)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.