Warm Leatherette

This article is about the Daniel Miller song. For the Grace Jones album of the same name, see Warm Leatherette (album).

"Warm Leatherette"
B-side to "T.V.O.D." (7", 45rpm) by The Normal
Released	1 May 1978
Genre	Post-punk Electronic Industrial
Label	Mute Records Mute1
Writer	Daniel Miller
Producer	Daniel Miller

"Warm Leatherette" is a song by Daniel Miller.

Overview

"Warm Leatherette" was released as the B-side to "T.V.O.D.", the only single by Miller's musical project The Normal. It was the very first release on his Mute Records label, and an early example of the then-burgeoning industrial music genre. The lyrics of the song reference J.G. Ballard's controversial 1973 novel Crash.

Miller plays a series of sawtooth waves on a $150 Korg 700S synthesizer. It was recorded in his apartment using 2 ReVox B-77 tape machines. With 'Mute 1' written on it, it sold thirty thousand copies.

Cover versions

• Grace Jones famously covered "Warm Leatherette" and is the title track on her 1980 album of the same name.
• Die Tödliche Doris recorded a cover of this song in December 1980, later released on their 2000 CD, "Kinderringellreihen Für Wahren Toren Des Grals"
• Sleep Chamber covered this song on a 1985 7"
• Pankow covered this song on their 1989 LP "Freedom for the Slaves"
• Prayer Tower covered this song in a 1990 12" single, "Warm Leatherette"
• Blok 57 covered this song on their eponymous album in 1992
• Club 69 recorded multiple covers of this song, first on a 1995 release (the "Love Leatherette", "Wild Club Mix", "Spicy Dub", and "Wild Beats" mixes), then on another 1995 release (the "Quick Mix"), on a 1999 album, "Re-Styled", (the "Danny Tenaglia Mix"), then on a 2007 electronic compilation album, Naughty Holiday Collection, (the "Piliavin & Zimbardo Remix"), then on a 2007 Star 69 Trax promo disc (the "Saeed Younan Remix")
• Chicks on Speed/Hell covered this song on a split 7" in 1998 with different versions of the song. Chicks on Speed later re-released their cover on a 2000 CD, "The Re-Releases Of The Un-Releases" with an additional intro
• Girls on Top (aka Richard X) mashed up this song with Missy Elliott's She's a Bitch to produce "Warm Bitch" in 2000
• Velocity Star recorded a cover of this song for the 2000 compilation album "The Final Solstice II"
• Dive recorded a cover of this song, released in June 2000 on the electronic compilation CD "Heaven & Hell"
• Analogue Brain covered this song, released on an industrial compilation CD, "Septic III", in October, 2002
• The Former Yugoslavia, in 2003, released a "dictionaraoke" cover of the song, leaving the underlying music as originally written, but replacing the sung words with Merriam-Webster's recordings of each word in the lyrics.
• Takkyu Ishino covered this song on his March 2004 single "The Rising Suns"
• Signal Electrique covered this song on their October 2004 album, "Acid Library"
• Vitalic performed a live version of "Warm Leatherette" on BBC Radio 1. A recording of the performance was included on Vitalic's 2005 single "My Friend Dario" and a collector's edition of his 2006 album OK Cowboy.
• Destruction Unit covered this song on their 2006 album "Death To The Old Flesh"
• Erik Friedlander and Teho Teardo covered this song in their 2006 album "Giorni Rubati"
• Zombie-Zombie covered this song in their 2006 EP, "Zombie-Zombie"
• BlizzFrizz covered this song live at Veilchen in Graz, Austria as early as 2006
• Trent Reznor, Peter Murphy, Jeordie White, and Atticus Ross covered this song live on the radio in Boston on 6-23-06 during the Nine Inch Nails tour that year.
• Duran Duran performed the song at their run of ten concerts in New York City in November 2007, and as part of an electro medley portion of their set list on the subsequent 2008 Red Carpet Massacre tour
• HIV+ (aka Pedro Peñas y Robles) recorded a cover of this song ("Normotone Remix") on the 2008 album "Babylone Chaos", followed by the "Club Amour Rmx" on the February 2009 compilation album "Electronic Manifesto: French Tribute To Mute Records", followed by the "LAAG Remix" on the March 2009 compilation album "STUMM + BONG: An Independent Tribute To Mute Records", followed by the "Cruise [ctrl] Rmx Feat. Cosyma" on the May 2009 compilation album "Elegy Sampler 59", followed by the "AQL Rmx" on the 2010 compilation album "Club Respekt 2010"
• Rubin Steiner covered this song on his 2008 album Weird Hits, Two Covers & A Love Song
• Absolute Body Control covered this song on a 7" released in July, 2008
• J.G. Thirlwell covered this song on the September 2008 compilation album "Recovery"
• Genevieve Pasquier covered this song in her October 2009 album "Le Cabaret Moi"
• Tarsus covered this song on their May 2010 MP3 release (with To-Bo) "Split Wars 054"
• Giddle Partridge and Boyd Rice covered this song on an August 2010 single titled "Warm Leatherette"
• Naith Vault covered this song in an October 2010 single
• Laibach performed a cover of the song at the end of their set at the Mute Records Short Circuit Festival at the Roundhouse, London, on May 14, 2011. They have also performed it as part of their 30th Anniversary tour.
• NON aka Boyd Rice covered the song again for the Short Circuit edition of the Mute compilation "Vorwärts"