![]() ![]() “Relax” was released on 24 October 1983 as the lead single from Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s first album, “Welcome to the Pleasuredome”. Irish rock band U2 is known to have had an affinity for playing “Relax” during some of their live tours. This made Horn the first producer to top both the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously with songs by two different musicians. This song reached number 1 in the UK while another track that Trevor Horn produced, “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (by Yes), concurrently hit number 1 in the US. Has been certified Platinum in the United Kingdom. Overall “Relax” charted in well over 20 nations, including peaking at number 10 In fact said prohibition actually contributed to the song eventually blowing up.Īlso topped the Eurochart Hot 100 and music charts in a few other countries However, it still managed to reach number one while being banned. It spent a significant amount of time under ban by the BBC. “Relax” reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, albeit after a couple of months. Horn has indicated that the spirit which the band brought to the recording process was instrumental in getting the track completed. In fact by the end of the day, only one member of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Holly Johnson, made it onto the recording that was actually released. The track was produced by Trevor Horn, who thoroughly dominated the overall process of bringing “Relax” into existence. And he has stated they the words ‘floated into his head’ randomly one day while walking, in a rush, down a street in Liverpool. It is Johnson who is recognized as the primary songwriter. The writers of this song are Frankie Goes to Hollywood members: And there is also a “Relax” music video intertwined into the 1984 adult-themed movie, “Body Double”, which actually features Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Yet another, featuring the band performing the song live, was helmed by director David Mallet. The second was directed by a musical duo known as Godley & Crème. That was a gamechanger.There have been various music videos made for “Relax”. The first had Bernard Rose as its director and was centered on homosexuality. The prevailing rumor is that it was banned by both the BBC and MTV. The New York Mix made a big difference because it started getting played in clubs. We were getting so many complaints about the Sex Mix, including from gay clubs which found it offensive, that I decided to do another 12-inch, something more ambitious with material that wasn’t on the original. They thought it was disgusting.Ībout a week later, I went to Paradise Garage for the first time. The guys from Foreigner, who didn’t like me much anyway, wanted to see it. Paul sent over the video on VHS cassette. I was in New York working with Foreigner when I realised how risque Relax was. In my imagination, he was among minarets on top of a temple playing to a crowd below as they all moved towards him in time with the music. He came down to do the vocal, and I suggested he play it at the start of Relax. Holly had been blowing his saxophone on the studio roof in Notting Hill at 2am, and a bunch of guys appeared on the street, calling up to him. We put our heads down and got it first take. We had to work for hours to get to a point where we could record it. Steve was playing guitar, Andy keyboards and JJ working the Fairlight. I was working the drum machine and was manually switching between patterns on the fly and singing a guide vocal. I could programme a drum machine perfectly in sync with the piano. This was the first time you could sequence natural sounds, which was a huge step forward. The Fairlight had a programme called Page R. All the work we had put into these different versions suddenly coalesced. ![]() Sometimes when you do that and give it one more go, you get lucky. We were all frustrated because it felt like we were going nowhere. On the final single version, I was recording with three brilliant people: Steve Lipson, Andy Richards and JJ Jeczalik. But that's why I hired the Blockheads – I needed to try the track with some other musicians, to see if there was anything else we could do with it. By the time we finished Welcome to the Pleasuredome, he was good. Brian Nash came in, but had only just learned how to play. The original guitarist was the bass player Mark O'Toole's brother, Jed, but he had to leave and get a day job. The band we signed weren't quite the band who had appeared on the original demo, though we didn't know that at the time. ![]()
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