You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead or Alive

Album: Youthquake (1984)

Charted: 1 11

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Songfacts®:

One of the more hook-heavy hits of the '80s, "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" was the biggest hit for Dead Or Alive, a synth-pop band from England with the kind of flamboyant look you would expect from a British synth-pop band in the '80s (huge hair, shiny clothes, eye makeup).

The song is essentially a series of pick-up lines, with lead singer Pete Burns trying one after another:
"You look like you're lots of fun"
"I set my sights on you"
"I would like to move in just a little bit closer"

And, of course, something more original in the chorus:
"You spin me right round like a record"

It's not clear if he gets the goods, as the song ends with him spinning round like a record over and over.
Pete Burns wrote the song with his fellow band members Steve Coy, Tim Lever and Mike Percy. That high-energy, dance-floor ready track came from Stock, Aitken and Waterman in one of their first productions. After that team scored their first hit with Hazell Dean's "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)," Burns decided he wanted to work with the production team. Stock, Aitken and Waterman went on to write and produce hits for Mel And Kim, Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley.
The strings are based on Richard Wagner's classical piece "The Ride Of The Valkyries."
Dead Or Alive released their first album in 1984 and had a few minor hits in the UK. They put out "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" as a single in November 1984, and it made a slow climb to #1 on the UK chart, hitting the top spot in March 1985 in its 14th week in the Top 75, breaking the record for the slowest climb to the top of that chart. It also claimed the top spot in Canada, Ireland and Switzerland. In America the song picked up steam in dance clubs and went to #11 in August 1985.
Dead Or Alive had another hit in the UK with "That's The Way (I Like It)" and one more in the US with "Brand New Lover." Lead singer Pete Burns was very distinctive - he had an androgynous, Boy George look that was popular in the '80s.
A Linn 9000 drum machine/sampler, which was introduced earlier in 1984, was used on this track.
This track was re-released in 2006 after the lead singer of Dead Or Alive, Pete Burns, took part in Celebrity Big Brother on UK TV.
There have been a number of remixes, re-releases and covers of this song. The band Dope did an industrial version for the American Psycho soundtrack in 2000; Jessica Simpson recorded a pop rendition in 2006.
Adam Sandler sang this in his 1998 movie The Wedding Singer to open the film.
Pete Burns was married to a woman when this song was released, and they stayed together until 2006. Burns had extensive plastic surgery in the '90s and '00s, explaining that he would get bored with the way he looked. His appearance became more feminine, and his lips got really big.

In 2007, Pete Burns filed a lawsuit against the plastic surgeon who worked on those lips. Burns released this statement: "What happened to me after a series of injections was far worse than any nightmare I could have envisioned. Not only was it agonizingly painful but it was physically repulsive in the extreme. It was impossible to lead any life whatsoever. I was unable to leave my house as I was so distorted with swelling and I might begin to discharge yellow pus that was coming from the holes in my face. At times it leaves me seriously suicidal and depressed and I could have problems for the rest of my life. If I can prevent at least one person from undergoing this hell and point them in the right direction to a doctor who can manage their problem, then at least I can help stop someone else suffering."

In 2016, Burns died of a heart attack at age 57.
Flo Rida reworked this song for his 2009 single "Right Round." It was the first high-profile appearance of Kesha, who sang the hook.
Speaking with the Daily Mail in a 2012 interview, Pete Waterman revealed that the song was recorded in a 36-hour session, and he took cocaine to help him stay awake in the studio. "It's the only time I have ever done cocaine in my life," he said. "Well, you know, how do you stay up for 36 hours?"
The song got a lot of attention from TV performances across Europe, including on the UK show Top Of The Pops. Pete Burns could really command the camera, which translated to the video, which helped get the song a lot of exposure in America thanks to MTV.
Jimmy Fallon and Paul Rudd, emboldened by the viral video they made re-creating "Too Much Time On My Hands" by Styx, did a shot-for-shot remake of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" in 2019. But this time, Rudd actually sang the song as well.

Comments: 16

Dj Michaelangelo from Grand Rapids, MichiganIn 2015 they finally released "You Spin Me Round (Buzzing Bees Mix)" on the 2015 boxed-set "Stock Aitken Waterman: Say I'm Your Number One". This remix was AKA the infamous 'TDF Mix' from 1984, that went unreleased for decades. Pete Waterman himself revealed the orgin of this particular version, in his 2000 autobiography 'I Wish I Was Me' (page 128):

"I'd got a hold of some BBC sound effects albums, and on one of them there was the sound of two dogs having intercourse. Now me being me, I thought I had to put it on a record. So Phil Harding and I pressed up this acetate of 'You Spin Me Round' with the sounds of the dogs yelping and stuff over the top of it, and I called it the 'TDF Mix'. TDF = Two Dogs f--king. At all the gigs I played, it sent the audience mental. I had one bloke come up to me and offer to give me a hundred quid for it then and there. It was a winner every time I played it.

I came back after the Christmas holidays and there was a phone call from Muff Winwood's office at CBS Records. They wanted to know what on earth this TDF record that everyone had been raving about was. They'd had orders for it coming out of their ears, so I told them it was Dead Or Alive, and just something that I'd come up with to play when I was DJ-ing.

Then Pete Burns rang me up. 'What's this TDF Mix?' he asked. I didn't know quite how he'd react if I told him it was Two Dogs f--king. I sort of thought he'd appreciate it, but he could be so unpredictable that it might have cost us the working relationship. So off the top of my head I said 'Oh yeah Pete, TDF...that's the Tour De Force mix'. I didn't know where that came from, but it sounded viable. 'Tour De Force - brilliant! I love it!' he said. And the buzz on that mix was the final shove we needed. It was the first Stock Aitken Waterman number one."
Dj Michaelangelo from Grand Rapids, MichiganIn 2003 the music from "You Spin Me 'Round" was used in a mashup for the Dannii Minogue song "I Begin To Wonder" which ended up being released as its own single, complete with various 12" vinyl and CD pressings. Pete Burns from Dead Or Alive had this to say about the mashup:

"I woke up one morning and my radio alarm went off and I nearly jumped out of bed in glee, “Oh, my record’s on the radio!” And I was quite horrified to find it was Dannii Minogue’s record mixed with mine, with Danni Minogue singing over it. Somebody had taken Spin Me and mixed in Dannii’s vocal and taken me off. And I thought ‘Well, that’s all very nice. But how can they say they can’t play me but they can play my backing track with her on?” And it became more and more prominent on the radio airwaves and we let it tick away, and we got in contact with her record company, who denied that they knew anything about it. So we did a little bit of investigation and we found out her record company, Warners, had actually been servicing that record to the radio stations. They probably hoped that I’d retired to some obscure wool shop in Birmingham and I didn’t even own a radio. They probably thought that I wasn’t active in the music industry. And then the legal things went back and forth and, “Yeah OK, we did do it but we didn’t know you were going to release it, and can we do mix with more of you on and we’ll programme that. So we gave an OK to do a mix with more of me on. Then we get a response, “Sorry, we’re finished with the Dannii Minogue record, we don’t need you anymore.” So it seems that I’m meeting that wall of resistance at radio, and looking at the club stations for Spin Me, where it was No.1 in club charts for quite a long time, radio used to jump on the back of that."

source = magazine article by Steve Pafford "Dead Or Alive at G-A-Y: The Pete Burns Interview You’ve Never Heard Before" (from April 2017)
George Pope from BcIn Canada, 2023, this was used in a commercial for a store brand(PC) frozen pizza, with the music track run extra slow and a high-pitched wheedling singing of the lyrics -- Horrible!
Don from Munster, InSomeone actually combined this song with Dannii Minogue's "I Begin To Wonder." Like her sister Kylie, Danni also had an appreciation for mashups and proceeded to make her own version of the mashup.
Karen from Manchester, NhIt's funny how this song is so dated, and so timeless, at the same time! It's one of those songs that people hate to admit that they really like.
Victoria from Chicago, Ilthis is better than flo rider's version.
Cynthia from Scranton, Palove this in the wedding singer! great song and hilarious movie!
David from Fort Wayne, InIt's an awesome song.

Music Video is pretty funny/scary/disturbing though. Made all my friends laugh.
Luke from Manchester, EnglandWhy the hell is this filed under the band "Live"?
Peter from MiddelburgCompare this with Hazell Dean's 1984 hit Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go). The same producers, the same song.
Carrie from Roanoke, VaThis song does sound a little stalkerish, as Lacie pointed out. Still, I have to say it's one of my favorites because of the beat and Peter Burns' deep voice. Too bad Smart Start had to cheapen it by using it in its commercial. Nevertheless, I still like it, and sometimes when I'm jokingly making a pickup line, I'll say to a friend, "You spin me right round like a record, baby!" A couple of my friends and I used to dance to it in the dorms in college. Fun stuff.
Lacie from Whitefish, MtIs this song about a stalker? i mean read these lyrics

Yeah I, I got to know your name
Well and I, could trace your private number baby
All I know is that to me
You look like you're lots of fun
Open up your lovin' arms
I want some

sounds stalkerish
Kim from New Btunswick, NjPossibly one of the best pop songs ever written - honest! So fierce!

The comments above forget to add that it went all the way to number FIVE (!!) UK when it was re-released in 2006.
Zak from Superior, CoThis piece never gets old.
Dee from Indianapolis, InI enjoy this stuff. Fun music, and it has a nice vibe overall.
Dave from Cardiff, WalesIn reply to Edwartd Pearce, "Dead Or Alive's UK hits didn't just stop with "That's The Way..." (No. 25 in 1984), and "You Spin Me Round..." which went to No.1; they also had further suceess in 1985 with No.11 hit "Lover Come Back To Me" and "In Too Deep" which reached No.14, while a series of minor UK Top 40 hits - including "Brand New Lover" - saw the band continue to chart until as late as 1989.

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