Depeche Mode founding member and keyboardist Vince Clarke wrote this synth-pop landmark. Musically, it was inspired by "To Cut a Long Story Short" by Spandau Ballet, released in 1980. To that point, Clark wasn't into dance music, but the Spandau Ballet song turned him around.
"It was the first time I was actually impressed by a rhythm that went 'boom-thwack, boom-thwack,'" he told Rolling Stone in 2000. "It was the first time I discovered dance music for myself, and to write a song around the rhythm was quite a revelation for me. 'Just Can't Get Enough' came out of that."
Clarke had just turned 20 when he wrote this song, which turned out to be the last one he wrote for Depeche Mode. He left the band after the
Speak and Spell album was released, later joining Yaz and Erasure. The "Just Can't Get Enough" video is the only one he appears in.
>>
Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
According to Depeche Mode vocalist Dave Gahan, this song was written as the punk scene was winding down and London club kids were looking for music they could dance to that wasn't so aggressive.
Early Depeche Mode, under the direction of Clarke, had a more upbeat sound. In a Songfacts
interview with Vince Clarke, he explained: "Martin Gore writes in a different way than I do, so that's obviously the main difference. And they've developed this kind of a rock feel to their music. I'm more a fan of pop music, or I'm more of a fan of writing pop music, that's the most difference, I guess."
In an interview with Q magazine February 2008, vocalist Dave Gahan recalled recording Depeche Mode's debut album Speak and Spell and their early days as a band: "Vince (Clarke) was the leader at that point. By the time we got into the studio, Vince had got bored with it. He didn't like the idea of having to deal with other personalities. He wanted to be in control. That's the only album where the songs had already been performed for a year and a half beforehand, and we went into the studio and recorded them as we would live. I think Daniel (Miller, their record label boss) saw us as a cross between the Ramones and the Beach Boys, in an electronic way - fast and short with really simple riffs. We were courted by major labels and were very suspicious of signing a deal that meant five albums. We'd come from that punk ethic: we just wanted to make a single. Daniel came along and that's all he really had the money to do, so it kind of worked. We wanted to keep in control. We never thought much beyond the next single and playing some gigs. That time was brilliant."
Not everyone appreciated the Speak and Spell album. Rolling Stone magazine called it "PG-rated fluff."
-
This was used in popular ads for The Gap, which featured young people lip-synching to the song in front of a white background. They were selling a line of leather.
Vince Clarke was known to sing this with an acoustic guitar at Erasure concert dates. Clarke formed Erasure with Andy Bell a few years after leaving Depeche Mode.
>>
Suggestion credit:
Kelly - Portland, OR
This became the first Depeche Mode song used in a movie when it was featured in the 1982 film Summer Lovers. It was also used in The Wedding Singer in 1998.
Clive Richardson directed the video, which was the band's first. MTV, which launched the year the song was released, ignored it for the most part; the first Depeche Mode video to make hot rotation on the network was "
Personal Jesus."
Three fashionable ladies are in the video dancing and giving the band moral support. Dave Gahan recalls one of them being the girlfriend of Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer Budgie.
This was Depeche Mode's first Top 10 single in the UK, and although it didn't chart in the US, it became a club favorite.
Girl group The Saturdays covered
this song in 2009 for the Comic Relief charity.
This was used on Friends in the season 3 episode "The One With The Flashback." It plays in the background when Monica, Chandler, and Rachel are hanging out in a bar. It was also used in these TV series:
Gossip Girl ("Valley Girls" - 2009)
The Comeback ("Valerie Makes A Pilot" - 2014)
American Horror Story ("Room Service" - 2015)
Single Parents ("Ketchup" - 2019)