Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s landmark debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome is marking its 40th anniversary.
The album featured four hit songs that have remained popular throughout the decades that have followed, and the tracks have been remixed over the years by some of the world’s top DJs.
The album was a number 1 record in the UK and rose to number 7 in the Australian charts. Frankie Goes to Hollywood featured several gay members at a time when there had previously been few out and proud musicians. Suddenly in the early 1980s bands like Culture Club, Bronski Beat and the boys from Frankie changed the landscape.
The Liverpool band burst on to the music scene in 1983 with their single Relax which was promptly banned by the BBC’s Radio 1, it also came with a risqué video.
The song quickly rose to the top of the charts. In the end, Relax remained on the Top 75 for 48 consecutive weeks and returned in February 1985 for four more weeks, giving it a total of 52 weeks of chart success.
The song was back in the Top 10 in 1993 when the band put out a Greatest Hits collection and several remixes of the song.
Follow up singles Two Tribes and the ballad The Power of Love soon followed, and the title track was also a mammoth hit.
The double album reportedly sold a million copies even before it was released. There was some criticism though, the album version featured new recordings of the hit records, with producer Trevor Horn replacing much of the bands playing with session musicians and his own playing.
The Frankie phenomenon was huge in 1984 with the bands iconic ‘Frankie Says; T-shirts been seen everywhere.
OUTinPerth spoke to lead singer Holly Johnson back in 2014 and he reflected on the song’s longevity.
“I don’t reflect much upon it, unless questioned. I’m very happy that those songs I wrote as a young man have lived on into the 21st Century and that it still sounds great. I prefer the 7″ mixes of Relax and Two Tribes etc that Australian Julian Mendelsohn did, than the ones on the album.”
The double album also included a number of cover versions with the band delivering their take on the Dionne Warwick tune Do You Know the Way to San Jose, as well as a version of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, and the Vietnam era anti-war song War.
There was no shortage of songs called The Power of Love in the mid-80s. In 1984 Jennifer Rush had a huge hit with a different song using the same name, her tune was later covered by Celine Dion. Huey Lewis and the News had one of their biggest hits when there tune The Power of Love featured in the film Back to the Future.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s song is often thought of as a Christmas tune, but it actually has no reference to Christianity or festive celebrations in its lyrics. The was some references though in the song’s video and cover art. The tune scored the band a UK number 1 in early December 1984.
While the album was a huge success, the band wasn’t unable to replicate the magic on a follow up record. Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s second album Liverpool came out in 1986 and it failed make a dent in the charts or produce any hits, and they broke up soon after. Lead singer Holly Johnson then launched a solo career.
