You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)


"You Spin Me Round " is a song by British band Dead or Alive on their 1985 album Youthquake. Released as a single in 1984, it reached No. 1 in the UK in March 1985, taking 17 weeks to get there. It was the first UK No. 1 hit by the Stock Aitken Waterman production trio. On the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at No. 11 on 17 August of that year. In 2003, Q ranked the song at number 981 in their list of the "1001 Best Songs Ever", Blender listed it at number 289 on its ranking of "Greatest Songs Since You Were Born" in 2005 and in 2015, it was voted by the British public as the nation's 17th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV. Musician and actor Gary Kemp described the song as "one of the best white dance records of all time."
The video, which features a disco ball, waving gold flags and an evocation of the six-armed Vishnu, was directed by Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton.

Background and composition

Dead or Alive's vocalist Pete Burns stated in his autobiography that he composed "You Spin Me Round" by using two existing songs as inspiration for creating something new:
According to Burns, the record company was unenthusiastic about "You Spin Me Round", to such an extent that Burns had to take out a £2,500 loan to record it, then once it had been recorded "the record company said it was awful. It was unanimous – it was awful, it was rubbish." Burns stated that the band had to fund production of the song's video themselves.
The strings were based on Richard Wagner's classical piece "Ride of the Valkyries".
Interviewed for BBC Radio 4's The Reunion: The Hit Factory, in April 2015, Burns said that the confrontational attitude of the producers was met with an equally confrontational attitude from the band and that this led to "quite a bad vibe" for the entirety of the studio time, describing the experience as "a time of intense friction".

Re-releases

A remix version of "You Spin Me Round" was released in 2003 at the same time Dead or Alive's greatest hits album Evolution was released. The song reached no. 23 in the UK Singles Chart. The original 1984 recording was re-released on 30 January 2006 because of lead singer Pete Burns's controversial time as a contestant on television series Celebrity Big Brother and reached no. 5.
Earlier remixes were in 1996 and 1997. In 1999 these mixes were issued in the US as a 2-CD set. The first disc held seven mixes of "You Spin Me Round" while disc two has five mixes of "Sex Drive". In 2000, new mixes appeared on Fragile and in 2001, on Unbreakable: The Fragile Remixes. No videos were made for these.

Chart performance

The song has been re-released three times since its original release in 1984. Each time of its release, it achieved success, but failed to match the success of the original. However, after lead-singer Pete Burns's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, the single was re-released and managed a Top 5 peak on the UK Singles Chart in 2006.
According to Burns, 12-inch singles comprised over 70% of the original sales of You Spin Me Round, and because these were regarded by the record label as promotional tools rather than sales, the band had to threaten legal action against the label before they received the royalties on them.

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart Position
UK Singles 99

Sales and certifications

Dope version

band Dope covered the song on their 1999 album Felons and Revolutionaries; the cover also appeared on the soundtrack for the film American Psycho. The band's version became their first chart entry on any Billboard chart, reaching no. 37 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Track listing

Chart positions

Jessica Simpson version

's version of the song was released as a promo single from her fifth studio album A Public Affair in 2006. Her version of the song failed to break into the Billboard Hot 100. Simpson's version has new lyrics and only preserves the chorus of the song.
Chart Peak
position
US Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 10020
US Billboard Pop 10095

Other cover versions

and Gigi D'Agostino have also done remixes. Danzel's version peaked at no. 32 in Belgium.
Flo Rida featuring Kesha's 2009 single "Right Round" interpolates elements of the song.

Track listing

;1985, Epic – 49-05208; 1989, Epic – 49H69181
  1. "You Spin Me Round " – 8:00
  2. "Misty Circles" – 9:10
;1997, Epic – 49-78588
  1. "You Spin Me Round " – 8:00
  2. "Brand New Lover" – 9:10
;1999, Cleopatra – CLP 0533-2
  1. "You Spin Me Round " – 3:38
  2. "You Spin Me Round " – 4:13
  3. "You Spin Me Round " – 3:21
  4. "You Spin Me Round " – 5:11
  5. "You Spin Me Round " – 7:05
  6. "You Spin Me Round " – 8:10
  7. "You Spin Me Round " – 7:00
  1. "Sex Drive" – 2:52
  2. "Sex Drive" – 3:54
  3. "Sex Drive" – 6:39
  4. "Sex Drive" – 6:59
  5. "Sex Drive" – 5:56
;2003, Epic 673578 2
  1. "You Spin Me Round " – 3:46
  2. "You Spin Me Round " – 6:55
  3. "You Spin Me Round " – 5:47
  4. "You Spin Me Round " – 3:16
;2006, Epic 82876 806212
  1. "You Spin Me Round " – 3:16
  2. "You Spin Me Round " – 7:27
  3. "You Spin Me Round " – 3:46
  4. Video: "You Spin Me Round " – 3:44