Songoftheday 1/22/14 - But shoot it in the right direction make makin' it your intention, live those dreams, scheme those schemes, gotta hit me with those laser beams....

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - "Relax"
from the album Welcome To The Pleasuredome (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day is by the eccentric British new wave band Frankie Goes To Hollywood, who had almost made the top 40 in America on their second try with the political club-filler "Two Tribes". After that, the band re-released their first single, a song that brought them infamy and riches in their homeland, "Relax". A pulsing dance march based on thinly veiled sexual lyrics and sonic special effects courtesy of producer Trevor Horn, the single became one of the biggest-selling records of all time in the UK, despite a ban at the BBC for playing the track. It spent five week at #1 on the singles charts, while originally stalling at #67 in the States. The ban was brought on not only because of the racy words, but also from the erotic single cover, painted by artist Anne Yvonne Gilbert and my pick for the hottest cover of all time. There were four different videos floating around for the video, but the first, featuring band members leading singer Holly Johnson around at a leather establishment with tigers and men in togas, was delectably over-the-top. We had never seen the explicitly gay underbelly make such a mainstream show, and teenage me was deliriously ecstatic...

"Relax" became Frankie's first and only top-10 single in March of 1985, while making it to #20 on the dance club play list. Besides their UK success, the band topped the singles charts in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain among others with the record. The band's next single in America, "Welcome To The Pleasuredome", stopped at #48, while the band enjoyed a third #1 hit in the UK with "The Power Of Love". In 1986 they released a second album, but only managed a top-ten hit in England with the first release "Rage Hard". With the third single "Watching The Wildlife" stalling at #28, Johnson left the band for a solo career, and there wouldn't be another new hit for the band...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

But it wouldn't be the last of Frankie on the chart. Relax was reissued with new remixes twice, first in 1993, with redos by Jam & Spoon and Ollie J, and made it back to #5 that year...

"Relax" again climbed the chart in 2001 with remixes from Peter Rauhofer and Coldcut, and went to #19 on the American club chart...

Now as I had mentionned, the original "leather bar" video didn't have a chance to be shown on TV in either England or America, so the video team of Godley and Creme did another laser-filled version...