"Everyone Knows That" / "Ulterior Motives"

About

"Everyone Knows That" or "Ulterior Motives" refers to a short audio clip of an unidentified song that was uploaded by user carl92 to a song identification website in 2021. The three-year-long search for the song went viral on the internet, with users theorizing various possible origins for it. In April 2024, Redditor south_pole_ball discovered that the origin of the song, called "Ulterior Motives," is a 1986 adult film Angels of Passion, with the discovery going viral and spawning jokes and memes online.

Origin

On October 7th, 2021, carl92 posted a song clip to WatZatSong^[1] titled "Can you name this song?" The low-quality audio clip is around 17 seconds long and it is unknown who the artist is or what the song is called, earning it the colloquial name "Everyone Knows That" based on the presumed lyrics, many of which are also unclear. It was reuploaded to YouTube^[2] by Jay Kay on October 10th, 2021, although the video has since been deleted (reupload shown below).

You're counting on a shift in disguise
Caught up in your world of lies
Everyone knows it (You’ve got)
Ulterior motives, tell me the truth
Every move shows

The WatZatSong uploader is also unclear of the origin, writing in a comment on the day it was posted:

Thanks. Sorry that's all I have. I don't remember its origin. I rediscover 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 thing is it sounds somewhat familiar to me (or maybe I'm mistaken with a similar song) and I though it wasn't going to be a too obscure one. I tried in www.aha-music.com, and also tried searching the lyrics but my english is not good enough for that, I only understand something like: "everyone knows that, you can't […] tell me the truth"

Spread

On October 13th, 2021, Redditor u/Null42x64 made a post to /r/LostWave^[3] asking for more information on the song. On July 11th, 2022, Redditor u/Excellent_Ad_497 made another thread to /r/LostWave^[4] about the song as a piece of lost media, occasionally updating the thread with all known information on the song, garnering over 400 upvotes in two years. One update reads:

A user named Niski said: this is not from a cassette, definitely a recording off TV (not a VHS or anything playing in an NTSC country) as it contains a 15.734 kHz pilot tone only present in MTS broadcasts exclusive to a selected few countries.

On June 27th, 2022, YouTuber^[5] Tony St Pierre posted a video isolating the vocals, garnering over 30,000 views in two years (shown below, left). On June 19th, 2023, the /r/everyoneknowsthat^[12] subreddit was opened to investigate the song. On June 23rd, YouTuber^[6] Backr00mz posted a recreation of a fuller version of the song, garnering over 44,000 views in eight months (shown below, right).

On June 25th, YouTuber^[7] Swofford posted a recreation of a full imagining of the song, garnering over 170,000 views in the same span of time (shown below). On July 23rd, YouTuber^[8] Unreal Aired posted a video essay on the song, garnering over 625,000 views in seven months.

On October 10th, 2023, YouTuber^[9] YourBoyDonald posted what is arguably the highest quality remaster of the song, garnering over 113,000 views in four months (shown below).

The song became increasingly popularized on TikTok in early 2024 as TikTokers began uploading videos set to the song's audio, describing its status as lost media.

For example, on February 6th, 2024, TikToker^[10] @msloan98 posted a video about the song, garnering over 2.1 million views in a day (shown below, left). Later that day, TikToker^[11] @atlas_plus posted a video that gained over 670,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below, right).

Origin Media Found

On April 28th, 2024, Reddit users One-Truth-5867 and south_pole_ball made a post to /r/everyoneknowsthat^[13] after discovering that the song comes from the 1986 pornographic film Angels of Passion.^[14] The song "Ulterior Motives" was made by Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth of the band Affair. After the discovery, several users uploaded the song from the film with attempts to remove the sounds of the sex scene that the song is played in (shown below).

Later that same day, Christopher Saint Booth^[15] made a post to his TikTok account asking if anyone wished to see an official release of the song (shown below).

Various Examples

@ma1nst0ppuh It makes me wonder so much #lostmedia #fyp ♬ Ekt lost song – LITHIUM🎸

@1livrosee im still mad abt it to this day #fyp #ulteriormotives ♬ Ekt lost song – LITHIUM🎸

Search Interest

External References