Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1985)
General information
Genre (s)	Pop music , Hi-NRG
founding	1980, 2004
resolution	1987, 2007
Website	frankiesay.com
Founding members
Drums	Peter Gill
singing	Holly Johnson
guitar	Brian Nash
bass	Mark O'Toole
Background vocals , vocals	Paul Rutherford

Frankie Goes to Hollywood ( FGTH for short ) was a British pop group that was successful in the international charts between 1983 and 1987. Her biggest hits include Relax , Two Tribes and The Power of Love .

Band history

The group consisted of the Liverpool musicians Holly Johnson (vocals), Paul Rutherford (vocals, keyboards), Peter Gill (drums, percussion), Mark O'Toole (bass) and Brian Nash (guitar). Holly Johnson's musical career began with the punk band Big in Japan , which also included Ian Broudie (later The Lightning Seeds ) and Bill Drummond (later numerous other projects such as The JAMs and The KLF ). The musicians gave themselves the band name Frankie Goes to Hollywood, inspired by a picture of a newspaper page pinned to the wall of their rehearsal room. The article featured Frank Sinatra with the headline "Frankie Goes Hollywood". Johnson added the word "to", as he writes in his autobiography A Bone in My Flute , because it made the name sound more fluid. The first band to which Johnson belonged under this name never got beyond practice sessions. When he founded a new band with Nash and Gill and later O'Toole and Rutherford, he chose this name again and initially performed with Two Tribes at various festivals. After Trevor Horn had found the first songs to be good, he turned to the group as a producer .

The single Relax , released in October 1983 , quickly climbed the UK charts and, when it reached number 6 in January 1984, was censored by the BBC on radio and television programs due to its lewd cover and homoerotic lyrics. Even so, the title remained number 1 for five weeks. The ban was lifted for Christmas 1984.

The next single was Two Tribes in May 1984 . The martial anti-war song stayed on top for nine weeks. This succeeded before them only the band Wings with Mull of Kintyre (1977-78). Two Tribes was introduced by sirens and the spokesman for the British government's Protect and Survive campaign for protection from nuclear disputes, Patrick Allen , was won over to speak for the song.

In late 1984, FGTH released the third single, The Power of Love , which was the last of their singles to hit number 1 in the charts in December 1984. Although it is a love song, the accompanying music video made reference to Christmas , so the song is often played on the occasion to this day. After Gerry & the Pacemakers in 1963, Frankie Goes to Hollywood was the first band to reach number 1 in the charts with their first three singles. FGTH also dedicated a cover version of their most successful song Ferry Cross the Mersey to Gerry & the Pacemakers , which they released on their first album Welcome to the Pleasuredome .

In May 1985, FGTH released their fourth single, Welcome to the Pleasuredome . For the first time it did not come first in Great Britain, but reached number 2. The album version had to be greatly shortened so that the double album of the same name, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, would not be too long.

The next single Rage Hard was not released until August 1986 , a foretaste of the album Liverpool, which was released in October 1986 . The single reached number 4 on the British charts. The subsequent release Warriors of the Wastelands reached number 19, the last release, Watching the Wildlife, only reached number 28.

When there was a heated argument between Johnson and O'Toole in London's Wembley Arena during a tour in January 1987, it became clear that the group would break up after the tour. This also happened. Four years after the band broke up, the public learned that Holly Johnson was HIV positive . Paul Rutherford and Holly Johnson were coming out .

The role of Trevor Horn

Together with Trevor Horn, FGTH produced a previously unknown bombastic sound with various long versions of their individual tracks. In addition, a marketing machinery that was enormous at the time was set in motion. Among other things, a T-shirt with the FGTH logo and their own computer game were offered for sale.

Trevor Horn is considered to be the discoverer of the band, was the boss of her later label Zang Tuum Tumb ( ZTT Records ) and producer during the pleasure dome phase. Horn had an exact idea of ​​what FGTH should sound like and wasn't convinced the band was musically qualified to do it. On the first singles Relax and Two Tribes there was no other musician of the band apart from singer Holly Johnson. Instead, Horn had studio musicians play.

On the occasion of Trevor Horn's 25th anniversary as a musician and producer in 2004, the band re-formed after 17 years, but without Johnson and Nash. The role as lead singer was taken on by Ryan Molloy , then 28 , who had previously been specially cast for the concert at Wembley Arena.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1984	Welcome to the Pleasuredome	DE4th platinum (39 weeks)DE	AT3 gold (4½ months)AT	CH5 (17 weeks) CH	UK1 × 3 Triple platinum (67 weeks)UK	US33 gold (41 weeks)US	First published: October 29, 1984 Producer: Trevor Horn
1986	Liverpool	DE5 gold (25 weeks)DE	AT7 (3 months) AT	CH7 (13 weeks) CH	UK5 gold (13 weeks)UK	US88 (13 weeks) US	First published: October 20, 1986 Producer: Stephen Lipson

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1993	Bang! … The Greatest Hits of	DE8th gold (22 weeks)DE	AT15 (9 weeks) AT	CH11 (15 weeks) CH	UK4th gold (15 weeks)UK	-	First published: October 18, 1993
2000	Maximum Joy	-	-	-	UK54 (1 week) UK	-	First published: October 25, 2000
2009	Frankie Say Greatest	-	-	-	UK27 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 2, 2009
2012	Sex Mix - Archive Tapes and Studio Adventures, Volume One	DE61 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: August 6, 2012
	Frankie Said	-	-	-	UK87 (1 week) UK	-	First published: November 5, 2012

More compilations

• 1985: Bang!
• 1994: Reload! Frankie: The Whole 12 Inches
• 2000: The Club Mixes 2000
• 2001: Twelve Inches
• 2002: Rage Hard: The Sonic Collection
• 2002: Bang! … Hard On (The Greatest Hits & the Complete ZTT Videos) (CD + DVD)
• 2009: Frankie Say Greatest (The Mixes) (2 LPs)
• 2013: The Best Of (2 CDs)
• 2014: Inside the Pleasuredome (box with 2 LPs, 3 EPs, 1 MC, 1 DVD)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1983	Relax Welcome to the Pleasuredome	DE1 (38 weeks) DE	AT4 (6 months) AT	CH1 (31 weeks) CH	UK1 platinum (70 weeks)UK	US10 gold (23 weeks)US	First published: October 18, 1983
1984	Two Tribes Welcome to the Pleasuredome	DE1 (22 weeks) DE	AT16 (2 months) AT	CH4 (14 weeks) CH	UK1 platinum (33 weeks)UK	US43 (15 weeks) US	First published: May 28, 1984
	The Power of Love Welcome to the Pleasuredome	DE4 (27 weeks) DE	AT8 (14 weeks) AT	CH2 (15 weeks) CH	UK1 gold (39 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 19, 1984
1985	Welcome to the Pleasuredome Welcome to the Pleasuredome	DE9 (13 weeks) DE	AT20 (1 month) AT	CH20 (6 weeks) CH	UK2 silver (18 weeks)UK	US48 (8 weeks) US	First published: March 18, 1985
1986	Rage Hard Liverpool	DE1 (19 weeks) DE	AT12 (4 months) AT	CH5 (12 weeks) CH	UK4th silver (7 weeks)UK	-	First published: August 22, 1986
	Warriors of the Wasteland Liverpool	DE7 (16 weeks) DE	-	CH13 (8 weeks) CH	UK19 (10 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 11, 1986
1987	Watching the Wildlife Liverpool	DE23 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK28 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: February 23, 1987

More singles

• 1984: Relax Warp Mix
• 1985: The Smash Hits Interviews Number Four ( Flexi )
• 1994: Two Tribes (Fluke's Minimix)
• 2006: Relax ( Antoine Clamaran vs. Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
• 2013: Maximum Joy
• 2014: Voiceless, Volume 1 - The Instrumentals (5 mp3 files)
• 2014: Lovers & Haters (Studio Sessions) (EP)
• 2014: Cowboys & Indians (Alternate Takes) (EP)
• 2014: Doctors & Nurses (Mix / Remix) (EP)

Video albums

• 1984: The Power of Love
• 1985: From a Wasteland to an Artificial Paradise
• 1986: Rage Hard
• 1987: Relax ( CDV , promo single)
• 1993: Shoot! The Greatest Hits of Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• 2000: Hard On
• 2009: Frankie Say Greatest (Videos)

statistics

Chart evaluation

DE  AT  CH  UK  US Number one albums DE-DE AT-AT CH-CH UK1UK US-US Top 10 albums DE3DE AT2AT CH2CH UK3UK US-US Albums in the charts DE4thDE AT3AT CH3CH UK6thUK US2US

DE  AT  CH  UK  US Number one singles DE3DE AT-AT CH1CH UK3UK US-US Top 10 singles DE6thDE AT2AT CH4thCH UK5UK US1US Singles in the charts DE7thDE AT5AT CH6thCH UK7thUK US3US

Awards for music sales

Golden record  France 1984: for the single Relax 1987: for the album Liverpool  Canada 1984: for the single Relax 1984: for the single Two Tribes  Netherlands 1984: for the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome 1984: for the single Two Tribes

Platinum record  France 1996: for the album Bang! … The Greatest Hits of  Canada 1985: for the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Germany (BVMI)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	1,000,000	musikindustrie.de
France (SNEP)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	900,000	infodisc.fr
Canada (MC)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	200,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	2 × gold2	-	125,000	nvpi.nl
Austria (IFPI)	-	gold1	-	25,000	ifpi.at
United States (RIAA)	-	2 × gold2	-	1,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	2 × silver2	3 × gold3	5 × platinum5	4,100,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	2 × silver2	14 × gold14th	8 × platinum8th

swell

1. ↑ Holly Johnson: A Bone in My Flute. Random House, London 1994, ISBN 0-7126-6145-X , p. 133
2. ↑ Frankie Goes to Hollywood at laut.de.
3. ↑ Frankie Goes to Hollywood - a history story between Relax and Bang ( memento of the original from August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Intro , February 5, 1995. 
4. ^ Frankie's new vocalist unveiled , BBC News, October 31, 2004.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles Albums UK Billboard 200

Web links

Commons : Frankie Goes to Hollywood  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Frankie Goes to Hollywood website
• Discography
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood at Musik-Sammler.de
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood at MusicBrainz (English)
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood at Discogs (English)