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You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

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"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"
Single by Dead or Alive
from the album Youthquake
B-side"Misty Circles"
Released5 November 1984; 40 years ago (1984-11-05)[1]
RecordedMarch to October 1984
Genre
Length
  • 3:19 (album version)
  • 3:16 (single version)
  • 8:01 (Murder mix)
  • 7:28 (Performance mix)
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Stock Aitken Waterman
Dead or Alive singles chronology
"That's the Way (I Like It)"
(1984) 		"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"
(1984) 		"Lover Come Back to Me"
(1985)
Music video
"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" on YouTube
Audio sample

"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" is a song by the English pop band Dead or Alive, featured on their second studio album, Youthquake (1985). Released as a single in November 1984, it reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart in March 1985, taking 17 weeks to get there. It was the first UK No. 1 hit by the Stock Aitken Waterman production trio.[12]

On the US Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at No. 11 on 17 August of that year, becoming their highest-charting single there.[13] The song also reached No. 1 in Ireland[14] and in Canada,[15] while in Australia it peaked at No. 3[16] and it charted highly in numerous European countries.

In 2003, Q ranked the song at number 981 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever", Blender listed it at number 289 on its ranking of "Greatest Songs Since You Were Born" in 2005, and in 2015 it was voted by the British public as the nation's 17th-favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.

Background and composition

[edit]

Dead or Alive's lead vocalist Pete Burns stated in his autobiography Freak Unique that he composed "You Spin Me Round" by using two existing songs as inspiration for creating something new:

How did I write "Spin Me"? I listened to Luther Vandross's "I Wanted Your Love". It's not the same chord structure, but then that's the way I make music – I hear something and I sing another tune over it. I didn't sit and study the Luther Vandross album – I heard the song and it locked. [...] I'm trying to structure the music and I know what I want. [...] It's like do this, do this, do this – and suddenly it hits. I don't want to do Luther Vandross's song, but I can still sing the same pattern over it. And there was another record, by Little Nell, called "See You 'Round Like a Record". [...] So I had those two, Van Dross [sic] and Little Nell and – bingo! – done deal.

— Pete Burns, Freak Unique (2007)

Desiring to move on from the sound of the band's debut studio album, Sophisticated Boom Boom (1984), Pete Burns wanted "You Spin Me Round" to be produced by the then little-known production team Stock Aitken Waterman, in the Hi-NRG style of their 1984 UK hits "You Think You're a Man" by Divine, and "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)" by Hazell Dean.[12]

In a 2009 interview discussing the song, Burns disputed the Hi-NRG label, saying "to me it was just disco". He also described the song as "a pop hit, not a hi-NRG hit", and claimed Sylvester as a major influence.[17] Burns later said he had wanted to make a "glittery disco record", while Pete Waterman, asked to define the song's sound, said it was "techno-disco; without a question that's what it was. It was new technology playing Motown; that's all it was. Taking out the musicians and bringing in technology for the first time."[18]

Burns claimed the song was "completed" by the time the producers were then chosen to work on it, stating that "the record companies don't trust a band to go into the studio without a producer".[19] According to Burns, the record company Epic was unenthusiastic about "You Spin Me Round" to such an extent that Burns had to take out a £2,500 loan to record it. After it was recorded, he recalled, "the record company said it was awful" and the band had to fund production of the song's video themselves.[20]

Interviewed for BBC Radio 4's The Reunion: The Hit Factory, in April 2015, Burns said that a confrontational attitude between the producers and band led to "quite a bad vibe" during production and "a time of intense friction".[21] Engineer Phil Harding, who mixed the track, said tensions were running so high between the band members and producers Mike Stock and Matt Aitken during mixing, that it almost escalated to violence.[12] Aitken has confirmed that tensions were high, with the producers clashing with band members over the latter's desire to keep adding new elements to the mix.[22] Stock has disputed the seriousness of studio tensions, alleging that Burns, Harding and Pete Waterman have all "exaggerated" what happened in their recounting of events.[23] "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" is written in the key of F♯ minor.[24]

Re-releases and remixes

[edit]

Remixes of the song were released in 1996 and 1997 (some included on the releases of Nukleopatra). In 2000, new mixes appeared on Fragile and in 2001, on Unbreakable: The Fragile Remixes. A remix version of "You Spin Me Round" was released in 2003 at the same time Dead or Alive's greatest hits album Evolution: The Hits was released. The song reached No. 23 on the UK Singles Chart. The original 1984 recording was re-released on 30 January 2006 because of lead singer Pete Burns' controversial time as a contestant on television series Celebrity Big Brother and reached No. 5.

Chart performance

[edit]

The song has been re-released three times since its original release in 1984. Each time of its release, it achieved success, but failed to match the success of the original. However, after Burns's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother 4 in 2006, the single was re-released and managed a Top 5 peak on the UK Singles Chart. According to Burns, 12-inch singles comprised over 70% of the original sales of "You Spin Me Round", and because these were regarded by the record label as promotional tools rather than sales, the band had to threaten legal action against the label before they received the royalties on them.[25]

Music video

[edit]

The accompanying music video, which features a disco ball, waving gold flags and an evocation of the six-armed deity Vishnu, was directed by Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton.[26][27]

Impact and legacy

[edit]

In 2003, British popular music magazine Q ranked "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" number 981 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever".[28] In 2005, Blender listed it at number 289 on its ranking of "Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".[29] In 2014, Matt Dunn of WhatCulture ranked the song at number three in his "15 unforgettable Stock Aitken Waterman singles" list, stating that the song "has had an enormous presence in pop culture since its 1984 release", as it has been covered, sampled, bootlegged or remixed by many artists, and used in films, series and TV ads.[30]

In 2015, it was voted by the British public as the nation's 17th favourite 1980s number-one in a poll for ITV.[31] After the death of Burns in 2016, musician and actor Gary Kemp described the song as "one of the best white dance records of all time."[32] In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number five in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1s".[33] In 2021, Classic Pop ranked it number-one in their list of "Top 40 Stock Aitken Waterman songs".[34]

In 2023, the song was covered by Netta as part of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 tribute to music from Liverpool.[35] In 2023, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian listed the song at number one in his "Stock Aitken Waterman's 20 greatest songs – ranked!", describing it "a breathlessly exciting single... It's commercial pop music that captures a small-hours dancefloor's hedonism and hysteria".[36]

Track listing

[edit]

Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[80] Gold 50,000^
Italy (FIMI)[81]
Sales since 2009 		Gold 35,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[82]
Physical 		Gold 500,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[83]
Digital 		Platinum 600,000‡

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Dope version

[edit]
"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"
Single by Dope
from the album Felons and Revolutionaries
Released2000
GenreIndustrial metal, nu metal
Length2:43
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Dope singles chronology
"Everything Sucks"
(1999) 		"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"
(2000) 		"Now or Never"
(2001)

Nu metal band Dope covered the song on their debut studio album Felons and Revolutionaries (1999); the cover also appeared on the soundtrack for the film American Psycho.[84] This version reached no. 37 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[85]

Charts

[edit]
Chart performance for "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dope
Chart (2000) Peak
position
US Active Rock (Billboard)[86] 30
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[87] 37

Jessica Simpson version

[edit]

Jessica Simpson's version of the song was released as a promo single from her fifth studio album A Public Affair in 2006. Her version of the song failed to break into the Billboard Hot 100, though it did reach no. 21 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. Simpson's version has new lyrics and only preserves the chorus of the song.

Charts

[edit]
Chart performance for "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Jessica Simpson
Chart (2007) Peak
position
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 (Billboard)[88] 21
US Pop 100 (Billboard)[89] 95

Other cover versions

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See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "New Singles". Music Week. 3 November 1984. p. 28.
  2. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (1996). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-6797-5574-6. Stock-Aitken-Waterman, the British schlock-disco maestros who took the trance-like beats of '80s synth-pop to their dancefloor extreme, most famously on Dead or Alive's drag opus "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)."
  3. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (1 June 2020). "The 100 greatest UK No 1s, No 5: Dead or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  4. ^ Owen, Tom (30 April 2024). "The top 25 greatest 1980s synthpop songs ever". Smooth Radio. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  5. ^ Barron, Lee (2010). "Camp Transitions: Genre Adaptation and the Hi-NRG/Dance Cover Version". In Plasketes, George (ed.). Play it Again: Cover Songs in Popular Music. Ashgate Publishing. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-7546-6809-1.
  6. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Dead or Alive – Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Dead or Alive". Apple Music.
  8. ^ "Dead or Alive". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  9. ^ Chin, Brian (11 May 1985). "Dance Trax". Billboard. Retrieved 3 August 2023. The A-side, produced by the team behind Divine's European successes (also unreleased here), is proof positive that disco is commercial, whether on major or indie label, especially when combined with enough raunch to put it in the "rock" category...
  10. ^ Schiller, Rebecca (26 March 2017). "100 Best Songs Of The 1980s". NME.
  11. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "80's New Wave: New Wave Dance - Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic" – via AllMusic.
  12. ^ a b c "Ep 3: You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". Podcasts. 30 May 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  13. ^ "The Hot 100". Billboard. 17 August 1985. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
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  17. ^ Pete Burns on the 1980s - From Punk to Pop and where he fit in (and didn't!) - Full length
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