Alphaville "Forever Young (Single & Video)"

"Forever Young" is a song from German synthpop recording act Alphaville's 1984 debut album of the same name. The single was a strong hit in Scandinavia and in the European German-speaking countries in the same year.

The single achieved more success in the United States than in the United Kingdom, but it failed to reach the American top 40 despite three separate US single releases. Though not the group's highest-charting European hit, "Forever Young" became one of the band's signature songs and has subsequently been covered by numerous artists.

Originally released by Alphaville as a single in 1984, "Forever Young" was available in both its original mix and in a dance version, entitled the "Special Dance Mix". Over the years the band has released several remixes and demo versions of the song.

The single reached number 65th position on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the top 40 on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/ Club Play Singles.

The song's music video shows the band performing in one of the halls at Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. A number of people ranging from children to the elderly, dressed in ragged finery, awake to watch the band, then walk through a diamond-shaped glowing portal.

Alphaville "Big In Japan (Single & Video)"

"Big in Japan" is the debut single of the German synth-pop band Alphaville. It was taken from their 1984 album Forever Young.

The single was a success in many countries, including Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. It was also the group's only UK Top 75 hit, reaching No. 8 on the UK Singles chart. The song also reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play in December 1984.

The group had a Roland System-100M which they first used to create the bassline. The timing of the song was influenced by "The Safety Dance", changing the speed to double-time, halfway through the song. The melody was developed by all three members of the band, working in their provincial home studio.

Marian Gold developed most of the lyrics while going to a dentist. The theme was based on two friends who were involved in the sordid drug scene of Berlin's Zoo station. The song tells of such lovers who fantasize about being drug-free. The refrain "big in Japan" symbolises this idea of being successful in another world.

That line has a certain meaning. It means that if you're a complete loser, you're telling other people, 'I'm not a loser because in Japan I'm really big.' It's the lie of the loser and it fitted perfectly into the story of these junkies, which the song is about, in a very tragic way.

— Marian Gold

The phrase was inspired by the name of the real band, Big in Japan, whose album Gold had recently bought.

As you know, there's a considerable musical market in Japan. If you wanted to become famous, what you should do was to form a hard rock group and then release an album over there; it would definitely sell well... so the story went ...

— Marian Gold

As the song reached the top of the German charts, the number one song which it displaced was "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood whose lead singer, Holly Johnson, had formerly been in Big in Japan – a remarkable coincidence, according to Gold.

The video was directed by Yello's Dieter Meier.

Alphaville "Afternoons In Utopia"

Afternoons in Utopia is the second album released by Alphaville in 1986, by Warner Music. The album was recorded between September 1985 and May 1986, and Alphaville employed no less than 27 guest musicians and singers to record the songs. 500,000 copies of the album have been sold.

The album's lyrics make several references to cosmic entities ("sci-fi" as one reviewer called it), including comets, the planet Mars and its landscape, and a starship. When the word "smile" is used in the songs "Afternoons in Utopia," "Lassie Come Home," and "Red Rose," it's printed in the liner notes as the acronym S.M.I².L.E., a reference to Timothy Leary, which stands for "Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, [and] Life Extension."

Marian Gold, singer and songwriter for the band, acknowledged that the message of their music was different from their previous album with this comment, which accompanied the song "Sensations" in the liner notes for the 1992 release First Harvest 1984-92:

“ Sometimes people used to say, "Have they gone crazy now? Talking with dolphins and all that!!" But I think that once we've learned the language of the dolphins - this mutual approach - that could be the moment of significant change in our messed up civilization. ”

Track listing

All tracks are written by Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Ricky Echolette, except as noted.

1. "IAO" 0:42
2. "Fantastic Dream" 3:56
3. "Jerusalem" 4:09
4. "Dance With Me" 3:59
5. "Afternoons in Utopia" 3:08
6. "Sensations" 4:24
7. "20th Century" 1:25
8. "The Voyager" 4:37
9. "Carol Masters" 4:32
10. "Universal Daddy" 3:57
11. "Lassie Come Home" 6:59
12. "Red Rose" 4:05
13. "Lady Bright" Albert & The Heart of Gold 0:43

The first song, "IAO" (which stands for International Aquarian Opera), begins with the word "night" and fades into the short IAO chorus (which itself is a lyric from the song "Afternoons in Utopia"). The album ends with the song "Lady Bright", a limerick about relativity, wherein the Lady Bright leaves one day and returns "the previous ...[night]", with the word "night" omitted. Thus the album loops back to its beginning.

The song "Afternoons in Utopia" is dedicated "For Inka" in the liner notes for the album.

Alphaville "Forever Young"

Forever Young is the debut album released by German synthpop group Alphaville on September 27, 1984, by Warner Music Group. It charted well, hitting the Top 20 in six European countries and reaching number 1 in Norway and Sweden. Alphaville followed up with their second album in 1986 with the release of Afternoons in Utopia.

The album was re-released in a "super deluxe" edition in March 2019.

The band released the single "Big in Japan" before the album had finished recording, and its success surprised the band and label. Said the band, "'[Big in Japan]' beamed us up into showbiz heaven, half of the album was still be to written. So, while we were in the middle of composing and arranging the residual songs, we were sort of overtaken by our future selves. … Once we wore tattered jeans and sweaty leather jacks … now we were homeless millionaires living in hotel suites and airports." Their sudden and unexpected success affected the rest of the album. In 1986, Gold recalled that he "bought an album of an unknown British band named Big in Japan. As you know, there's a considerable musical market in Japan. If you wanted to become famous, what you should do was to form a hard rock group and then release an album over there; it would definitely sell well... so the story went ... The statement fitted well to my storyline about a couple of drug addicted lovers and moreover provided the title for the prospective song."

The first three tracks the band recorded were "Big in Japan", "Seeds", which was released as the b-side to "Big in Japan", and "Forever Young", which was originally recorded as an up-tempo track. The band wasn't happy with the fast version of "Forever Young", and recording of the track had come to a halt while the band figured out what to do with the song. It was producer Budde who suggested turning the track into a ballad, which is how the song was released.

The band had planned to release "Forever Young" as their second single, to follow the success of "Big in Japan". However, record studio executives requested that the band should be release an additional song between the two singles, and as a result "Sounds Like a Melody" was written and arranged in just two days. Of the experience, singer Marian Gold said "the whole affair felt like an insult to our naive hippie instincts. Writing music exclusively for the sake of commercial success seemed like the sell-out of our virtual beliefs. On the other hand, did this not open up possibilities for wonderful games to play in the brave new world of pop music?" This corporate pressure caused Gold to dislike the song and he refused to play it live for over 15 years.

Some songs they wrote for the album were sung in German ("Blauer Engel", "Traumtanzer", and "Leben Ohne Ende"), but none of the songs ended up making it on the actual release, instead being released as b-sides or on later retrospective albums. Colin Pearson, who co-produced the album, said that Marian Gold would occasionally have problems with lyrics, and then he would remember that Gold was writing in a foreign language.

Band member Bernhard Lloyd said the album was recorded using equipment such as Roland TR-808 and Linn LM-1 drum machines, a Roland System-100M, an ARP String Ensemble and a Roland SDE 200 Digital Delay machine. The album was recorded on Tascam 8-track tapes, and they used a Friendchip SRC machine to synchronize all the tracks.

The song "Summer in Berlin" contains references to the East German uprising of 1953, which occurred on 17 June 1953. When the compilation album Alphaville Amiga Compilation was assembled for release in East Germany in 1988, the song "Summer in Berlin" was submitted for inclusion, but rejected "for political reasons."

"Fallen Angel" was written after "Big in Japan" was released, and the band said "everything changes when you're Number One. The world becomes a big shopping mall where all is for free, people, objects, what-ever. There is something vulgar about all this."

In 1988, Gold said that "In The Mood" is very likely about us, about how we felt in 1984, though we did'nt realize that when we wrote it. The rocket-like success of "Big In Japan" was mind-blowing and irritating at the same time and we were scandalized by a horror of losing our artistic innocence ever since we had signed that record-deal.”

On the song "The Jet Set", Gold said of the song, "We didn't intend to write a proper song; it was supposed to be some kind of jingle that advertises things money can't buy: anarchy, freedom, love, fun and a piece of the end of the world."

On March 15, 2019, the album is remastered for the first time for their 35th anniversary. The package comes with two additional CDs, one with original single versions, B-sides and remixes and the other with 16 original demos. The other disc is a DVD that includes a 60-minute documentary and promo videos. There is also a super deluxe edition that includes the new remaster on vinyl and comes with a 24-page vinyl-sized booklet, created by the art director of the original album in close collaboration with the band and contains a variety of rare and unpublished photos, sleeve notes and various other testimonies.

Track listing

All songs written by Alphaville, Lyrics by Marian Gold, Music by Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens.

1. "A Victory of Love" – 4:14
2. "Summer in Berlin" – 4:42
3. "Big in Japan" – 4:43
4. "To Germany with Love" – 4:15
5. "Fallen Angel" – 3:55
6. "Forever Young" – 3:45
7. "In the Mood" – 4:29
8. "Sounds Like a Melody" – 4:42
9. "Lies" – 3:32
10. "The Jet Set" – 4:52

Produced by Wolfgang Loos, Colin Pearson and Andreas "Andy" Budde

Recorded and engineered by Wolfgang Loos and Uli Rudolph

Technical assistance by Boris Balin and Thomas Beck

Mixed by Wolfgang Loos

Artwork, Cover Design by Ulf Meyer Zu Kuingdorf

Inner Sleeve Photography by Thomas Reutter

Management by Heinz-Gerd Luetticke