Can it really be 25 years since Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s debut single Relax reached Number 1? 25 years since Frankie shook up the music industry and polarised the nation? 25 years since one in four teenagers wore an iconic ‘Frankie Say…’ t-shirt? Such is their legacy, it feels like they’ve never been away.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood pushed boundaries, smashed sales records, broke taboos and created excitement and drama like no other band before or after. There’s not a week that goes by now without hearing a Frankie song on the radio, reading about them in the press or seeing something about them on the TV. Like The Beatles or Sex Pistols they are now an important part of the cultural fabric of our society. Now the band are putting out a definitive greatest hits album to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
It was in early 1984 when Frankie became a household name. The BBC famously banned Relax, giving the band endless publicity and so much notoriety that the track catapulted to Number One in the UK charts and held the top spot for five weeks. It went on to be the second biggest selling single of the year, beaten by Band Aid. Their next two singles (Two Tribes and The Power Of Love) went on to top the charts, making them the second band ever (the first being fellow Liverpudlians, Gerry & The Pacemakers) in UK chart history to reach number one with their first three singles. Before releasing their fourth single, the album title track, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, early promotional posters cheekily proclaimed it as their ‘Their Fourth Number One’, however it charted at Number Two, which unbelievably was deemed a disappointment!
Frankie’s debut double album Welcome To The Pleasuredome, released in November 1984, jumped straight to the top of the charts breaking pre-sales records ahead of its release.
The following years saw just one more studio album from the band. 1986s Liverpool, which included the singles Rage Hard, Warriors Of The Wasteland and Watching The Wildlife. They were unable to live up to their previous incredible and unparalleled achievements. Frankie Goes To Hollywood had been the biggest band of their generation and everything that brought with it made it impossible to emulate their initial success and maintain that level.
The key moment in the band’s history that enabled them to make the jump to worldwide superstardom came one night in February 1983, when legendary producer, Trevor Horn, heard Relax being played on Radio 1. This renowned music producer, songwriter and musician, former member of Buggles and prog-rock band Yes was impressed and intrigued; so much so that he immediately made moves to sign the band to his ZTT label, from where history was made.
Ingrained deep into the society of today’s pop culture, Frankie’s hits are as popular as ever on airwaves and dance floors across the land and with the release of Frankie Say Greatest, this special collection of pop songs can be enjoyed for the very first time in all its glory, no doubt infecting and inspiring a whole new generation of Frankie fans and ensuring that the burning torch that they hold in society blazes on for many generations to come.
Keep your eyes peeled kids, a review is to come, its out on November 2nd through Universal Music
