Watch out, here I come!

May 14, 2020 5:43 AM

1985 was a ridiculously strong year for music releases. May 15, 1985 was when Dead Or Alive released their debut album [YT playlist] Youthquake. It wasn't a giant release but it had a giant single and a lot of people bought it. Side A: You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) [video], I Wanna Be A Toy, D.J. Hit That Button, In Too Deep [video - dailymotion link], Big Daddy Of The Rhythm

Side B: Cake And Eat It, Lover Come Back To Me [video], My Heart Goes Bang [video], It's Been A Long Time

Bonus (glorious 80s remixes):

extended tracks not on original release:
A6: You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (Performance Mix), B5: Lover Come Back To Me (Extended Mix)

various bonus tracks:
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (Murder Mix) [Ed. Note: There are a zillion remixes of this from then. Scroll down here to find the list.]
Far Too Hard [from vinyl!]
I Wanna Be A Toy (Dub Mix)
In Too Deep ('Off Your Mong Mix)
My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me to the Doctor) (Extended)

posted by hippybear (17 comments total)

This is going to sound kinda weird, but my father thought the opening instrumental riff of "You Spin Me Round" would work perfectly for underscoring the cuts to commercial for live sports on ESPN or something. "Picture it," he kept saying. "You know how they always show a replay of a guy catching the football or tackling or something? Imagine that music under that, doesn't that sound perfect for it?" ….And actually I think he's kinda right.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:27 AM on May 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

I have the Murder Mix as a B-side to a 12" single for You Spin Me Round. I still play that record on a regular basis at club gigs, and it still absolutely murders the crowd.
posted by 1adam12 at 6:46 AM on May 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pete Burns rode that Stock/Aitken/Waterman chooga-chooga sound until it could carry him no further, and I love him for it. Dead Or Alive was deliciously campy and melodramatic, and their records never fail to make me laugh with delight. Long live Pete, RIP (it up).
posted by mykescipark at 7:19 AM on May 14, 2020

Hope no one minds me posting this beautiful piece of writing by Bill Drummond (mastermind behind the KLF, Echo & The Bunnymen manager, etc.) about the death of Pete Burns.

Remembrance Sunday
posted by ericthegardener at 7:28 AM on May 14, 2020 [8 favorites]

The copy editor of my high school newspaper always played Youthquake during pasteup, where we would work late printing out the Mac-typeset columns and gluing them down with hot wax before going to the printer. I always forget that My Heart Goes Bang wasn’t a big hit because I was hearing it so often, it was to me.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:39 AM on May 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

Paul Rudd and Jimmy Fallon did a shot for shot recreation of the “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” video. (Side by side comparison)

Skypoint for Pete Burns.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:12 AM on May 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

I graduated from High School in '85. "You Spin Me Right Round" was EVERYWHERE. Every pop station, every graduation party, everyone blasting it from their cars. It's a good tune, but even today I can only take 30 seconds or so before I'm sick of hearing it yet again!
posted by Frayed Knot at 10:56 AM on May 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Summer of '85 probably, I came from a small town that tried really hard to keep MTV off of cable TV because it was evil and the only radio stations in town played old rock-n-roll or country or gospel... Dad took me an my sister on a summer road trip across the country ostensibly to check out colleges but really an excuse for a two week visitation away from my mother.... driving into California and searching the radio and BAM, You Spin Me Round comes on and it's like the first time I've heard such a thing and thought "what is this wonderful noise?". It was also playing at the first crashing another campus' party. So it shares the space with a handful of songs that are a fixed-point-in-time that I can remember the first time.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:57 AM on May 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is going to sound kinda weird, but my father thought the opening instrumental riff of "You Spin Me Round" would work perfectly for underscoring the cuts to commercial for live sports on ESPN or something.

Speaking of... (let it run to "Unexpected Cover")

They actually released Unexpected Cover separately and I put it on my workout playlist. Actually does make me feel like I'm in the superpower/skills trainage montage of an action movie.
posted by praemunire at 11:09 AM on May 14, 2020

1985, huh.

1982-1984 was the high-water mark for pop music in the English-speaking world. Entirely coincidentally, 1984 was also the year I was twelve, so it's cool that that pop music peaked right at the time I was most receptive to it. Good timing, pop music industry!

but yeah, You Spin Me Round is an unforgettable song, pressing itself into the brain like it's gooey vinyl. Tho I always got Dead or Alive mixed up with Doctor and the Medics, probably because I had the same reaction when I saw their videos for the first time: "you could play that on the TV?"
posted by Sauce Trough at 11:33 AM on May 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Being the same age as Sauce Trough, I also cannot resist YSMR(LAR)...but I never once thought to find out what their other songs sounded like. And they're good!

My best friend and I joke about that track every three or four years, and yet it's still a good pop song. Sending this page off to him now. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 1:01 PM on May 14, 2020

Besides their big hit single, this is my favorite Dead or Alive song--not just for the song itself (which is a decent enough KC & the Sunshine Band cover), but for the video, which gleefully embraces a fetish aesthetic courtesy of some incredibly jacked women.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:23 PM on May 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

Argh, didn't know Pete Burns was dead (In 2016 go figure).
Youthquake was always a favorite.
They put out a pretty good cover of Rebel Rebel earlier this century.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 1:48 PM on May 14, 2020

If you need a dance song where it is simply essential that you obsessively join in on improvised percussion throughout - not matter how much it annoys everybody around you - then the murder Mix of You Spin me Round is one of the tracks to it do (the other is the 12'' version of The Best Part of Breaking Up by Roni Griffith). Don't ask me how I know.
posted by rongorongo at 3:57 PM on May 14, 2020

This just made me dance around my kitchen! Takes me back. I used to own the 12" of the big hit, not sure where it is.
posted by Coaticass at 1:02 AM on May 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

...and I'd favourite this post twice if I could.
posted by Coaticass at 1:03 AM on May 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Sophisticated Boom Boom was their debut album and had maybe my favorite DOA song "I'd Do Anything"

Besides their big hit single, this is my favorite Dead or Alive song yt --not just for the song itself (which is a decent enough KC & the Sunshine Band cover), but for the video,

We couldn't stop laughing at how great that video was when it came out.

I always forget that My Heart Goes Bang wasn’t a big hit because I was hearing it so often, it was to me.

I think of half the songs on this album as big hits, and still am surprised people think of DOA as a one hit wonder because I listened to them so much.
posted by bongo_x at 11:58 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]