Poison Arrow

"Poison Arrow" is a New Wave single released and popularised by ABC in 1982 and also included on their 1982 debut album, The Lexicon of Love. It reached #6 on the UK singles chart, #4 in Australia and also was their first entry on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, at #25. Karen Clayton provides the backing vocals.

The single was released in the UK on 7" and 12", with the same mix appearing on both formats; however a subsequent U.S. 12" remix (also known as the "Jazz Remix") appears on several ABC compilations and as a bonus track on reissues of The Lexicon of Love.

An alternate, lounge music-styled version of this song, entitled "Theme From Mantrap," was released as the B-side of "Poison Arrow" in the UK and The Look of Love in the US. The UK 12" single additionally included an instrumental version of "Theme From Mantrap" under the title "Mantrap (The Lounge Sequence)". Their UK hit "Tears Are Not Enough" was the US B-side of Poison Arrow.

In the music video, Martin Fry plays three roles — as a haughty upper-class opera patron, as a messenger boy at the opera, and as a bandleader at a 1960s-style swinging nightspot — and, in all three roles, unsuccessfully attempts to woo the leading lady, played by Lisa Vanderpump, later of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

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