New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (1986)

"Bizarre Love Triangle" is a single released in 1986 by the English rock band New Order. A version is included on their album Brotherhood.

Though it is one of the group's best known singles, it failed to make the Top 40 in either the United Kingdom or the United States. In the band's native England, "Bizarre Love Triangle" only reached No. 56. In the States, the song failed to chart in its original 1986 release, but its popularity has only climbed since; widespread airplay on U.S. Top 40 radio in the 1990s led to a brief, fluke appearance on the Billboard singles chart in 1995. The one country where it was a sizable chart hit was Australia, where it reached No. 5, initiating a string of five consecutive Top 20 hits. In 2004 the song was ranked number 201 in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Releases

The 12-inch version appears on the compilation Substance and a remix by Stephen Hague features on their Best Of album.

The music video was directed by American artist Robert 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 single mix features a cleaner sound with more electronics than the album version, notably the Fairlight CMI music workstation, the premier sampling keyboard workstation of the '80s, used to provide novel sounds, such as the orchestral hits that were so popular, but also to sequence the song. All instruments minus bass and voice were sequenced.

An alternate version featuring vocal hums after the first chorus is on the soundtrack of the 1988 film Married to the Mob.

Cover versions

"Bizarre Love Triangle" has been covered by many artists, such as Even As We Speak, Manitu, Devine and Statton, Tony DeSare, South, Rookie of the Year, Apoptygma Berzerk, Stabbing Westward and Charlotte Martin.
Australian band Frente! released an acoustic cover version of the song in 1994; it was the band's only major overseas success.
The song was also remixed in 2005 by The Crystal Method (for their album Community Service II) and by Richard X (for the New Order single "Waiting for the Sirens' Call").
It was remade into Chinese with the Cantonese version by Amanda Lee and the Mandarin version, by Sandy Lam, both under the title of "一個人 / Yī Gè Rén" ("One Person").
Brandon Flowers of The Killers, a band owing their name to New Order,has played "Bizarre Love Triangle" solo on piano at several of The Killers' concerts, as seen in widely circulated YouTube videos.

Bizarre Love Triangle US 1994 CD - Qwest 9 20546-2 NEW ORDER Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert [Enjoy] Track listing 1."Bizarre Love Triangle" (Album Version - Brotherhood 1986) – 4:20 2."Bizarre Love Triangle" (Extended Dance Mix) – 6:44 3."I Don't Care" ("Bizarre Dub Triangle") - 7:00 4."State of the Nation" – 6:31 5."Bizarre Love Triangle" (Single Remix) – 3:44 nWu Bonus 6. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (2004 Edition) - 5:00 7. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (12" Re-mastered Remix) - 6:42 8. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1994 Extended) - 3:54 9. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1994) [The Best Of New Order 1994] - 4:45 10. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Razormaid) [Substance 1986] - 6:22 11. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1999 Remix) [Lost & Found 4] - 6:38 12. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Richard X 12" Mix) - 7:02 13. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Live) Cover version 15. "Bizarre Love Triangle" [Frente!] 16. "Bizarre Love Triangle" [Devine & Statton - The Prince Of Wales] Youtube "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Glasgow 2008) "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Woodstock)

LYRICS every time i think of you i feel shot right through with a bolt of blue it's no problem of mine but it's a problem I find living a life that I can't leave behind there's no sense in telling me the wisdom of a fool won't set you free but that's the way that it goes and it's what nobody knows while every day my confusion grows every time I see you falling i get down on my knees and pray i'm waiting for that final moment you'll say the words that I can't say i feel fine and I feel good i'm feeling like I never should whenever I get this way, i just don't know what to say why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday i'm not sure what this could mean i don't think you're what you seem i do admit to myself that if I hurt someone else then I'll never see just what we're meant to be.