Songoftheday 2/20/14 - Won't you come see about me I'll be alone dancing you know it baby, tell me your troubles and doubts giving me everything inside and out...

Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)"
from the album The Breakfast Club (Original Soundtrack) (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is by the Scottish alternative rock group Simple Minds, who came together in the city of Glasgow in the late 1970s under lead singer Jim Kerr. They released their first album Life In A Day in 1979, and its new-wave styled title track became their first minor hit in the UK, peaking at #62. They would continue to have a few more minor hits while also crossing over to the dance clubs in America, popping up on the club chart in Billboard as early as 1981 with "I Travel" (#55), which was a frantic slice of electro-pop that predicted the Human League's success. Their first big hit in their homeland came in 1982, with the single "Promised You A Miracle", which slowed to a New Romantic midtempo almost Chic-like sheen, and climbed the British chart to #13. This started a streak of five consecutive UK top-40 hits from 1982 to 1984, with "Waterfront", which eschewed the disco and new wave and brought the Celtic-style rock thunder. It's that record that would probably be the closest to what would be their biggest hit that the band at first loathed.

"Don't You (Forget About Me)", written by Keith Forsey ("Flashdance") and Steve Schiff, was pitched to Simple Minds after being rejected by other new wave and punk acts like the Fixx. After prodding from their label (I'm sure wanting to finally "break" them), the band recorded the song for the soundtrack to the teen-angst classic film The Breakfast Club. Despite the band hating the record (probably for it not sounding like their work), it connected with millions around the world, and blew up like nobody's business...

"Don't You", their first American pop hit, went straight to #1 in May of 1985, while also topping the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard for three weeks. The record also shot to #9 on the dance club play chart, and even crossed over to adult-contemporary (or "easy listening") radio, peaking at #36 on that format. Internationally, the track went to #1 in Canada, top-ten in their native Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand. It would remain a classic anthem for the 80s generation even today, drawing from both new wave and film buff fans.

And I'm telling you half of American kids my age had this song as the soundtrack to their life running in their head at one point in their life.

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In 1990, trip-hop act Impedance covered the song...