“So Alive” by Love and Rockets

"So Alive" came out in 1989 as the second single from Love and Rockets' self-titled fourth album, and it's the sound of the British trio slowing everything down to a sly, hip-swinging strut. Daniel Ash wrote the words and sings them in a sultry near-whisper, playing guitar and keyboards, while David J handles bass and keyboards and Kevin Haskins keeps the beat on drums and percussion, adding keyboards of his own. Ruby James, Sylvia Mason-James and Lorna Wright come in as guest backing singers and give the chorus a gospel-tinged lift.

The three members share the music credit, and they produced the track with John Fryer, who also engineered it, for RCA Records. Howard Greenhalgh directed the video, with Pamela James producing.

It did serious business: number one in Canada, top 30 in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and five weeks at the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, which ranked it the number-one song of the year on its 1989 year-end chart.

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