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* The song was sampled in [[Hilary Duff]]'s "[[Reach Out (Hilary Duff song)|Reach Out]]", which she performed on her 2007 tour, the [[Dignity tour]].<ref>Bliss, Karen. [http://music.aol.ca/article/Hilary-Duff/142/ "Off the Cuff with Hilary Duff"]. [[AOL Music]] Canada. September 2007. Retrieved [[September 25]] [[2007]].</ref>
* The song was sampled in [[Hilary Duff]]'s "[[Reach Out (Hilary Duff song)|Reach Out]]", which she performed on her 2007 tour, the [[Dignity tour]].<ref>Bliss, Karen. [http://music.aol.ca/article/Hilary-Duff/142/ "Off the Cuff with Hilary Duff"]. [[AOL Music]] Canada. September 2007. Retrieved [[September 25]] [[2007]].</ref>
* This song was remixed by Dirty South.
* This song was remixed by Dirty South.
* UK girl group [[Sugababes]] sampled this song in the track "It Ain't Easy" from their [[2005 in music|2005]] album [[Taller in More Ways]].




Revision as of 15:50, 12 January 2008

"Personal Jesus"
Song
B-side"Dangerous"

"Personal Jesus" is Depeche Mode's twenty-third UK single, released on August 29, 1989, and the first single from the then upcoming album Violator. Since then, the title song has been covered by numerous artists.

The song was inspired by the book Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley. According to songwriter Martin Gore:

It's a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It's about how Elvis was her man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; how everybody's heart is like a god in some way, and that's not a very balanced view of someone, is it?[1]

"The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a list compiled by Rolling Stone Magazine, and "Personal Jesus" is ranked #368 [2].

Depeche Mode recording

File:PersonalJesusBack.jpg
Back Cover for "Personal Jesus" (CD with Alan Wilder)

In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with record producer François Kervorkian. The result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus", which featured a catchy, drum-based sound, radically different from anything the band had released thus far. Prior to its release, advertisements were placed in the personal columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The song became a big hit across the world, and is one of Depeche Mode's most successful songs, along with the following single, "Enjoy the Silence". It was the first time the guitar was used as the main instrument on a Depeche Mode song. The single took the world by storm and featured more advertising than usual with Depeche Mode, with magazine ads and a telephone campaign (people could call a number seen on magazine ads that would play the song). In addition, the single was particularly successful commercially thanks to the fact that it was released six months prior to the album it would later appear on. Up to that point, it was the best selling 12" single in Warner Brothers history. [3]

"Personal Jesus" has a plethora of remixes, almost unprecedented for Depeche Mode at the time. While most other Depeche Mode singles prior to "Personal Jesus" usually had band-made extended mixes, Depeche Mode started to invite more DJs and mixers to the fold, which would become the mainstay for all future Depeche Mode singles. François Kevorkian (who did the mixing for the Violator album, in general) mixed the single version, the "Holier Than Thou Approach" and the "Pump Mix", while producer Flood mixed the "Acoustic" version and the "Telephone Stomp Mix" as well as the single version and "Sensual Mix" of the single's B-side "Dangerous", a more disco-electronic track. The "Hazchemix" and "Hazchemix Edit" of "Dangerous" were mixed by Daniel Miller.

The back-cover of "Personal Jesus" features one of the band members and the back-side of a naked woman. The band member she is with depends on whether you have the 7" Vinyl (Martin Gore), the 12" Vinyl (David Gahan), the Cassette (Andrew Fletcher), or the original CD (Alan Wilder). On some copies she does not appear at all, such as the 2004 CD re-release, and on promo copies. On some limited releases, like the GBong17, all four pictures are available.

The Anton Corbijn-directed music video for "Personal Jesus" is his first Depeche Mode video in color, and features the band in a ranch. MTV edited out some suggestive mouth movements of Martin Gore during the bridge and replaced it with some other footage from the video.

In 2004, the song was listed at #368 in Rolling Stone magazine's "List of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," and in September 2006 it was voted as one of the "100 Greatest Songs Ever" in Q magazine.

In 2002, Johnny Cash chose to cover "Personal Jesus" on what would be the last album he released during his lifetime American IV: The Man Comes Around. In October 2004, "Personal Jesus" appeared on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack, playing on alternative station Radio X. There is a Christmas episode in the first season of the sitcom Scrubs entitled "My Own Personal Jesus", referencing the song.

Track listings

All songs written by Martin L. Gore

Cover versions and samples


Marilyn Manson cover

"Personal Jesus"
Song

Marilyn Manson's 2004 cover version of "Personal Jesus" appears on the band's best-of compilation, Lest We Forget, and was that album's lead single. It was recorded by Marilyn Manson with instrumentation and arrangement by Tim Skold at Manson's studio, Doppelherz Blood Treatment Facility, and mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent, a veteran producer who had also frequently worked with Depeche Mode.

The cover does not deviate in any large degree from Depeche Mode's original version, apart from additional guitar distortion. The single was accompanied by a music video directed by Manson and Nathan "Karma" Cox, which features the band members in Tableaux Vivants accompanied by rear-projection images depicting various images of American and international political figures.

Like the original version, this 2004 cover was also remixed by other artists. The "Personal Jesus Rude Photo Motor Mix" was produced by Felix Da Housecat, Brian Black and Olivier Grasset, and appears as a b-side on the vinyl versions of the single.

Manson's version of the song is also used as the theme song for professional wrestlers Austin Aries, "Miracle" Mike James and Necro Butcher

Track listings

UK Enhanced CD single
  1. Personal Jesus
  2. New Shit Invective – Obiter Dictum Mix by Bitteren Ende
  3. mOBSCENE Replet – Mea Culpa Mix by Bitteren Ende
  4. "Personal Jesus" video
Australian Enhanced CD single
  1. Personal Jesus
  2. mOBSCENE Replet – Mea Culpa Mix by Bitteren Ende
  3. Personal Jesus (Rude Photo Motor Remix)
  4. "Personal Jesus" video
German 3" CD single
  1. Personal Jesus
  2. This Is the New Shit (remix by Sergio Golayan)
UK 10" and UK 7"
  1. Personal Jesus (LP version)
  2. Personal Jesus (Rude Photo Motor Remix)
Promo/Demo CD Single
  1. Personal Jesus (LP version)
  2. Personal Jesus (Rude Photo Motor Remix)



References

  1. ^ http://www.tuug.utu.fi/~jaakko/dm/spinmode.html
  2. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/500songs/page/4]
  3. ^ allmusic.com
  4. ^ Bliss, Karen. "Off the Cuff with Hilary Duff". AOL Music Canada. September 2007. Retrieved September 25 2007.
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