Song · Dead or Alive
“Brand New Lover” by Dead or Alive
From the album Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know. (1986)
“Brand New Lover” by Dead or Alive appears on 15 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1986 and 2005. It was first released in 1986 on the album Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know.. Its best result is #12 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1986. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #50 alternative song of 1986 and #2,413 alternative song of all time.
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"Brand New Lover" was Dead or Alive's opening shot from Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, their third album, released on Epic in 1986, and it came out of a war zone. Six months in the studio with Stock Aitken Waterman were full of fights between the band, the label and the producers over what the new songs should sound like, and Pete Burns later said Epic only committed to a release date once Bananarama scored big with their own Dead or Alive-inspired take on "Venus".
The record itself shows none of the strain: a pumping dance beat, a glossy Stock Aitken Waterman sheen with a Phil Harding mix, and Burns camping it up in that booming baritone. It was a hit abroad, America and Japan included, but missed the UK Top 20, and Burns blamed his label, claiming it hadn't pressed enough copies and had cost the band 67,000 sales at home.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | 12 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1986 | 107 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 449 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988) | 501 |
| 1989 | 427 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) | 495 |
| 1990 | 191 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990) | 299 |
| 1992 | 118 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1992) | 299 |
| 1994 | 455 | Live 105 | Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) | 500 |
| 1996 | 484 | Q101 | Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) | 500 |
| 1998 | 457 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) | 488 |
| 1999 | 1434 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1434 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1435 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1433 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 1419 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 1419 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 1418 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
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