"Bizarre Love Triangle" is a song by the English rock bandNew Order, released as a single in 1986 from their fourth studio album, Brotherhood, which reached the top five on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart, and No. 5 on the Australian ARIA Charts in March 1987. It failed to make the top 40 in either the United Kingdom or the US Billboard Hot 100. In the United States, the song reached No. 8 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, but failed to chart on the Hot 100 during its original 1986 release. However, a new mix included on The Best of New Order was released in 1994 and finally made a brief appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 in the No. 98 position in 1995. In 2004 the song was ranked No. 201 in Rolling Stones "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Personnel
Bernard Sumner - lead and backing vocals, synthesizers and programming
Peter Hook - bass, electronic percussion, programming
Stephen Morris - drums, synthesizers and programming
Gillian Gilbert - synthesizers and programming
Releases
The 12-inch version, remixed by Shep Pettibone, also appears on the compilation Substance and a second remix by Stephen Hague features on their Best Of album. The original album version appears on the 2005 compilation Singles, the 7-inch version appears on the 2016 reissue of this compilation. New Order's live versions since 1998 are based on the Shep Pettibone remix. The single mix features more electronics than the album version, with the Fairlight CMImusic workstation used to provide sounds such as the orchestral hits, and to sequence the song. All instruments except vocals and Peter Hook's melodic bass were sequenced.
Music video
The music video, which was released in November 1986, was directed by American artistRobert Longo. It prominently featured shots of a man and a woman in business suits flying through the air as though propelled by trampolines; this is based directly on Longo's "Men in the Cities" series of lithographs. The video also features a black and white cut-scene where Jodi Long and E. Max Frye are arguing about reincarnation, in which Long emphatically declares "I don't believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit!" Frye responds, "You know, you're a real 'up' person," before the song resumes.
Australian band Frente! released an acoustic cover version of the song in 1994, re-imagining it as a folk ballad. Issued as part of the Lonely EP in their home country, the cover peaked at No. 7 on the ARIA Singles Chart and became the band's only overseas hit, reaching No. 49 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 53 in Canada, and No. 76 in the United Kingdom. In Australia it came in at No. 63 on the 1994 year-end chart and was certified Gold for shipments of over 35,000.
Chilean electronic music project PREZ covered the track in 2014.
Track listing
Initial pressings were the UK 7" mix, later pressings were the Canadian 7" mix
US editions mis-credit "Bizarre Dub Triangle" as "I Don't Care", reputedly due to a record company person contacting New Order's Manager Rob Gretton to ask what to name the mix as, Gretton is claimed to have said "I don't care"
