Songoftheday 3/21/16 - Here I am in silence looking 'round without a clue, I find myself alone again all alone with you...

"What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" - Information Society
from the album Information Society (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's song of the day is by the dance act Information Society, who came together in the Minneapolis area in the early 80's with singer Kurt Harland (who at the time adopted the surname Valaquen), along with Paul Robb and James Cassidy formed the core of the group. They released an indie single in 1985, "Running", which was a regional hit in New York (naturally, for it's pure freestyle dance sound), and climbed to #10 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Adding Amanda Kramer to the lineup, the quartet released their self-titled debut album on dance/hip-hop fave label Tommy Boy in 1988. The first single from the set incorporated samples of dialogue from Star Trek's Spock and Bones, capturing the hearts of both club queens and nerds alike. "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)", written by Robb and Harland and produced by Scritti Politti's Fred Maher, took the somewhat cut-and-paste freestyle sound and cut it into shreds and tossed it to bridge the gap between the goth-y stylers and the city roller kids...

"What's On Your Mind" became Information Society's first pop hit, reaching the top ten in the U.S. in October of 1988. The single also appeared on the first Modern Rock chart in Billboard magazine at #10, while the 12" single spent two weeks at #1 on their Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the song went to #18 in Ireland and #58 in Canada, but missed the top-75 in the UK.

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There was a very similar alternative take on the video that was released with the album mix. See if you can spot the differences...

...and the 12" club version (remixed by Little Louie Vega of the Masters At Work team) that topped the dance chart for two weeks...

...and an interview and concert clip for the song from 1989...

In 2001, a new set of remixes including a couple from Junior Vasquez, brought the track back into the clubs, and went all the way to #4 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart...

And finally, here's the band performing at a casino in Milwaukee in 2015...

Up tomorrow: a teen prodigy is getting all Fatal Attraction about breaking up.