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The song long known online as “Everyone Knows That” is “Ulterior Motives,” written and performed by brothers Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth. The 17-second clip that prompted years of speculation was identified in April 2024, when searchers traced the song through publishing information to the Booth brothers and a credit in the 1986 film Angels of Passion.
Why the song was called “Everyone Knows That”
In 2021, an anonymous user called Carl92 posted a 17-second music fragment to WatZatSong, a website where people ask others to identify recordings. Listeners recognized a fragment of a catchy 1980s-style pop song, but the short clip did not come with an artist, title, or source. The Lost Media podcast’s account of the search describes how listeners gathered around the snippet and pursued competing theories, hoaxes, and leads.
“Everyone Knows That” was the phrase listeners heard in the clip, not the song’s official title. After the identification, Christopher Saint Booth explained that the lyric is “everyone knows it.” That small difference helped give the mystery its internet name while also showing how a brief, imperfectly heard fragment can send a search in an unexpected direction.
How searchers identified the song
The breakthrough came in April 2024, after roughly three years of searching. Searchers pursued the alternative title “Ulterior Motives,” used publishing information to narrow down the writers, and connected the song to Christopher and Philip Adrian Booth through a film credit. NPR reported the resolution on April 30, 2024.
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The result tied together the main questions that had sustained the search: the track’s title, its creators, and where it had appeared. The original clip was only a short excerpt; the identification came from tracing the song’s records and credits rather than relying on the snippet alone.
The song’s original context in Angels of Passion
“Ulterior Motives” appeared in Angels of Passion, a 1986 adult film. Christopher Booth told ComicBook.com that the brothers had not written the song specifically for an adult film; they supplied existing music as a way to earn extra money. The film was where searchers found the track, but that does not establish that it was composed for the film.
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After the song was identified, the brothers were still looking through old media for the original vocal and instrumental parts. A May 2024 interview described their plan to release an album of unreleased 1980s pop material. The Lost Media podcast’s July 2024 episode, which includes the brothers reflecting on the discovery, links to Ulterior Motives: The Lost Album for listeners who want to explore more of their music.
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Sources and further listening
- NPR/CapRadio’s April 30, 2024 report covers the identification, the Booth brothers, and the film connection.
- ComicBook.com’s May 21, 2024 interview discusses the lyric mishearing, the song’s context, and the brothers’ search for original recordings.
- The Lost Media podcast introduction describes the 17-second upload and the search that followed.
- The Lost Media episode “Track 5: Everyone Knows It” revisits the discovery and links to Ulterior Motives: The Lost Album.
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