“Sex (I'm a...)” by Berlin

Berlin put "Sex (I'm a...)" on Pleasure Victim, their second studio album, in 1982, and when it went out as the record's second single in February 1983 it was the first release on the band's new label, Geffen. John Crawford, Terri Nunn and David Diamond wrote it together, and Crawford and Nunn sing it as a duet.

The arrangement is electronic disco in the Giorgio Moroder mold, with Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" as its North Star: a cool machine pulse under a heated exchange. Nunn later said the words grew out of her relationship with KROQ DJ Richard Blade and her attempts to bring role-play into their love life, and Blade backed her up.

That frankness came at a price, and several radio stations banned it outright. It still became a cult hit on American radio, peaking at 62 on the Billboard Hot 100, went all the way to number four in Canada, and pulled the band into the mainstream. The video barely got a look-in on MTV, though Nunn's mother turns up in it for a cameo. "The Metro" followed it as the next single.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.