| "Strangelove" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Depeche Mode | ||||
| from the album Music for the Masses | ||||
| B-side | "Pimpf", "Agent Orange" | |||
| Released | April 13, 1987 | |||
| Format | Vinyl record (7" and 12"), CD | |||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||
| Genre | Alternative dance, New Wave | |||
| Length | 3:44 (7"/single version) 6:32 (12" version) 4:55 (album version) |
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| Label | Mute - BONG 13 | |||
| Writer(s) | Martin Gore | |||
| Producer | Depeche Mode and David Bascombe | |||
| Depeche Mode singles chronology | ||||
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"Strangelove" is Depeche Mode's eighteenth UK single, released on April 13, 1987, and the first single for the then upcoming album Music for the Masses. It reached #16 in the UK charts (Depeche Mode would fail to make the Top 10 of the UK singles chart throughout the second half of the 1980s), but hit #2 in West Germany and in South Africa, and was a Top 10 success in several other countries (Sweden, Switzerland, etc.).
The original version of "Strangelove" is a fast-paced poppy track. Though successful, this did not seem to fit with the Music for the Masses's darker style, so Daniel Miller made a slower version of "Strangelove" which became the album version. The album version was released as a single itself in the USA, as "Strangelove '88". Former member Alan Wilder, in the Q&A section of his Recoil website, writes that the band felt the single version was "too cluttered" and was the reason Miller's remix was commissioned. Miller expounded on this in the Music for the Masses re-master documentary DVD, stating that he felt the original single version was too complicated and would benefit from being simplified.
There are two B-Sides for "Strangelove", both instrumental. "Pimpf" is a dark instrumental that is mostly piano, named after the members of one of the Hitler Youth organizations. "Pimpf" later shows up as the final track on the vinyl version of Music for the Masses.
The second instrumental is "Agent Orange", named after the herbicide used in the Vietnam War. At the end of the song, you can hear some morse code. Rumoured to mean "If anybody can hear this, please help me", it is actually just gibberish (LAXI ".-.. .- -..- ..", several times repeated). "Agent Orange" later shows up as the first bonus track on the CD/Cassette version of Music for the Masses.
The music video for "Strangelove" was directed by Anton Corbijn and appears on the Strange video and The Videos 86>98. Shot on Super 8 and in black and white, the video sees the band in various Paris locations, hotel rooms and in a studio posing in front of a rolling backdrop. At 0:24 video shows image of Senate House of University of London with the words "Strange Love" projected on it. The live action is combined with short stop-frame animation sequences. The video also stars two underwear models (one of who became Anton Corbijn's partner) as well as random pedestrians, featured in the closing 'out-takes' sequence of fast-edit shots. In the USA, MTV objected to some of the more revealing footage of the models and the video was edited to replace them with images of the band.
There was also a Corbijn-directed video for "Pimpf", exclusive to the Strange video, which features David Gahan, Alan Wilder and Andrew Fletcher shouting at each other syncing with the synthetic chanting, while Martin Gore plays the song on a Piano. It is to note that while Martin plays the piano in the video, it is Alan Wilder who plays the piano in all piano-instrumentals by the band from 1987–1990 as well as "Somebody".
In 1988, another video for "Strangelove" was released, set to the tune of the album version of "Strangelove". It was directed by Martyn Atkins who did photography for earlier DM albums. It was not publicly released until the The Videos 86>98+ DVD in 2002. This video is much simpler than the original, and features the band performing inside a castle-like location.
On September 7, 1988, the band played "Strangelove" on the MTV Video Music Awards in the US. You can view it on the official Depeche Mode website
"Strangelove" has been sampled in the songs "Life Ain't a Game" by Ja Rule, "I Won't Be Crying" by Infernal and "Point of View" by Samantha Mumba.
The song Strangelove was covered by two bands for Gucci's new perfume Guilty advertising campaigns in 2010-11: Friendly Fires for Gucci Guilty For Her' in 2010 and Bat for Lashes for Gucci Guilty For Him perfume advert, screened in 2011. Both songs were released as free mp3 downloads from Gucci's YouTube page and various blogs.[1]
"Strangelove" was covered by English musician Bat For Lashes during her appearance on the 3rd and 4th of June 2011 at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for the annual arts/entertainment/music festival 'Vivid Live'.
All songs written by Martin L. Gore
The "Zip Hop Mix" of Nothing appeared on the rare fourth disc of Depeche Mode's remix compilation, Remixes 81-04 in 2004.
| Preceded by "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston |
Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single August 1, 1987 - August 15, 1987 |
Succeeded by "Tina Cherry" by Georgio |