Bizarre Love Triangle

"Bizarre Love Triangle"
Song by New Order from the album Brotherhood
Released	29 September 1986
Genre	Alternative dance, New Wave
Length	4:22
Label	Factory
Writer	Gillian Gilbert Peter Hook Stephen Morris Bernard Sumner
Producer	New Order
Brotherhood track listing
"Way of Life" (5) "Bizarre Love Triangle" (6) "All Day Long" (7)

"Bizarre Love Triangle"
Single by New Order
Released	5 November 1986
Format	7-inch, 12-inch
Genre	Alternative dance, New Wave
Length	3:40 (7-inch) 6:44 (12-inch)
Label	Factory - FAC 163
Writer(s)	Gillian Gilbert Peter Hook Stephen Morris Bernard Sumner
Producer	New Order
New Order singles chronology
"State of the Nation" (1986) "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1986) "True Faith" (1987)

"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 United States, the song reached 4 on the Hot Dance Music/ Club Play Singles chart and 8 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in its original 1986 release. However, a new mix included on the The Best of New Order was released in 1994 and finally made a brief appearance on Billboard Hot 100 in the 1995 as a minor hit. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 original album version appears on the 2005 compilation Singles.

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 video also features a black and white cut-scene where Jodi Long and E. Max Frye are arguing about reincarnation.

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.

Despite this version being the main version of the song, the original album version is normally preferred for radio play.

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

The song can also be heard in the 2011 film What's Your Number?.

Cover versions

• "Bizarre Love Triangle" has been covered by many artists, such as Even As We Speak, Manitu, Devine and Statton, Sita, Tony DeSare, South, Rookie of the Year, Apoptygma Berzerk, Stabbing Westward, Jaymay 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.

Track listing

UK 7-inch - FAC 163

1. "Bizarre Love Triangle" – 3:40
2. "Bizarre Dub Triangle" – 3:23

US 7-inch - Qwest 7-28421

1. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Edit) – 3:36
2. "Every Little Counts" – 4:29

Australia 7-inch - FAC 163153

1. "Bizarre Love Triangle" – 3:40
2. "State of the Nation" – 3:27

UK 12-inch - FAC 163

1. "Bizarre Love Triangle" – 6:44
2. "Bizarre Dub Triangle" – 7:02

US 12-inch - Qwest 0-20546

1. "Bizarre Love Triangle" – 6:41
2. "I Don't Care" – 7:02 (Actually "Bizarre Dub Triangle")
3. "State of the Nation" – 6:31
4. "Bizarre Love Triangle" – 3:43

US 1994 CD - Qwest 9 20546-2

1. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Album Version) – 4:20
2. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Extended Dance Mix) – 6:44
3. "I Don't Care" – 7:00 (Actually "Bizarre Dub Triangle")
4. "State of the Nation" – 6:31
5. "Bizarre Love Triangle" (Single Remix) – 3:44

Chart positions

Chart (1986/1995)	Peak Position
Australia ARIA Singles Chart	5
Irish Singles Chart	7
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	19
UK Singles Chart	56
UK Indie Singles	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 (1995)	98
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 1	4
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales 1	8

Notes:

• ¹ - Charted with "State of the Nation".