Frankie says Relax…when you wanna come!

Name a song that defines the 1980’s more than any other… I can guarantee that for most of you it will be “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The Liverpool group’s debut single was released 40 years ago at the end of October 1983 but it would not become a hit until January 1984, spending five weeks at number one and staying in the top 40 for three-quarters of the year! It is one of the top five biggest selling singles of all time in the UK with sales in excess of two million copies, and to think BBC Radio 1 banned it for its ‘risque’ lyrics! As The Shamen would find out in 1992, that can only serve to help as the song gained support and just sold and sold and sold.

Holly Johnson, Mark O’Toole, Brian Nash and Peter Gill of the group wrote the song, which was produced by Trevor Horn as one of many tracks for Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s first album. The sextet were signed to ZZTG Records earlier that year, co-founded by Horn, and debued the song on The Tube, a new music show for the then new TV channel, Channel 4 in the UK. It was Horn who encourged the group to really let themselves go with this track, whatever the cost. Initial recordings were raw and stripped until Horn himself layered the production with more keyboards and synths, eventually serving up three versions of the song for the group to approve. With the original production thrown out of the window, it was just Holly Johnson left on the final version with his lead vocals.

With its now iconic sleeve and an intense ad campaign that set tongues wagging even before the release, “Relax” suffered initially from some ambivalence to play it commercially and took nearly four months before it reached the UK top 40. The rest is history and well documented. “Relax” went on to become the decades most controversial release and one of its biggest. Globally it made number one in multiple countires and broke the top ten in America. Frankie Goes To Hollywood would go on to achieve two more number one’s in 1984 with “Two Tribes” and “The Power Of Love”. “Relax” was remixed and re-released in 1993 as part of the group’s tenth anniversary greatest hits package, “Bang”.

2023 has seen a revival of FGTH with members of the group reforming to perform “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” and in November, with a 40th anniversary performance of ‘that song’, whilst Holly himself has spent most of 2023 touring as a solo artist as well, making sure that audiences don’t forget where it all started. 2023 has also seen the announcement that the Frankie Goes To Hollywood story is to be turned into a film with filmaker Bernard Rose at the helm, the man who directed the original promo vid for the single, 40 years ago!

Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Relax” 1983

Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Relax” 2023

Catch Holly Johnson on tour across the UK this Winter