Originally Posted by
Ky Fried Redleg
Over the next couple of questions , I'm gonna see who remembers their one-hit wonders. I've always been fascinated with bands that come up with this gigantic smash hit of a song and then , essentially, vanish forever like a ghost through a fog, never to be heard from again. Seems like the 1980's had more than its fair share of those.
139. This first story is a tale of how sex, regret and wallpaper resulted in a huge 80's hit for a band that took its name from two words mentioned in a newspaper article about an album by Queen. Those two words had been used by Freddie Mercury to describe his band's focus on making records instead of constant touring.
So, how did the idea for this song originate? It came from a night of sensual pleasure the band's lead singer/songwriter had with his ex-girlfriend. You see, they had recently split up, but one night he found himself going back for another round, a one night stand that he would immediately regret. Come on, don't act like you can't relate to this feeling. Most of us have been in that situation. We've split from our ex and we know we should just walk away for good, but instead we dive back in for one more drowning in the sea of love. I know I'm not the only one.
It was during the sex act(specifically, after the climax) when the singer first uttered the famous line of what would soon become the title of the song, as well as the opening line of the song. He immediately wrote down the line in his notebook. The next morning , he wrote the line on a piece of wallpaper, the same wallpaper where he had written many other phrases. Feeling a deep sense of guilt and regret from the night before, he began piecing together these phrases on his wallpaper to write a song expressing how he was feeling. The song's lyrics were completed by the end of the day and a demo was produced in two days.
The phrase that the band's front man uttered during the intimate encounter captured his feelings of regret and overwhelming passion, while acknowledging both the irony and the longing he felt at the time. The phrase is loosely inspired by the French term "la petite mort" ("the little death") , which is a metaphor for the sensations after an orgasm.
I've read that the singer and writer of the song has said that it contains multiple layers of meaning, revolving around a man's internal struggle against the potent allure of love: experiencing orgasm alongside helplessness, and finding it difficult to let go despite knowing he should. Like I said, many of us can relate to that experience. The message conveyed in the song is that one should not reconcile after a breakup, even after a passionate night.
How's that for content? That's the kinda wild stuff you get here in RZ music trivia . I feel like Chico Ruiz, gone rogue, although I have no idea what this singer's favorite color is. LOL However, I can tell you that , while working as a hospital orderly in the 70's, he was discovered by an ex-member of The Animals . As a teenager, he toured with such acts as Slade, David Essex, and Hot Chocolate.
The song reached the top 10 in 13 countries, and was #1 in at least four countries, including Canada and the US , where it sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, nearly four decades ago. VH-1 ranked the song as the 26th greatest one-hit wonder of the 1980's.
Oddly, the song was banned by the BBC during the Gulf War from the beginning of August, 1990 through the end of February of 1991.
There is another line in the song that is one of my all-time favorites from the 1980's. It's one of those lines I wish I had written. I can't give you the line now, but I will later.
I read once where the singer said he had 99 published songs, and that most people don't know anything about the other 98. Ah... the laments of a one-hit wonder.
Can you name this one-hit wonder song that was inspired by a night of intense and passionate sex with an ex, and the feelings of regret afterwards?
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