Song · Sisters of Mercy
“Temple of Love” by Sisters of Mercy
Released 1983
“Temple of Love” by Sisters of Mercy appears on 41 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1983 and 2024. It was first released in 1983. Its best result is #16 on the Studio Brussel De Tijdloze 100 (1999). In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #87 alternative song of 1983 and #310 alternative song of all time.
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The Sisters of Mercy released "Temple of Love" in October 1983 on Merciful Release, the band's label, as a single with no album to call home, their fifth. Andrew Eldritch, the singer, wrote it alone, words and music, and it's a big, brooding thunderclap of a record. It never troubled the main UK singles chart, but the independent chart was another matter: it sat at number one there for a week and hung on for 36 weeks in all.
Then it went out of print for years. After the band's third album, Vision Thing, came out in 1990 with no follow-up in sight, Merciful Release rounded up the band's early stand-alone singles and their B-sides for Some Girls Wander by Mistake, and in 1992 the band re-recorded the song as "Temple of Love (1992)" with the Israeli singer Ofra Haza. That remake gave them their biggest hit at home, reaching number three in the UK and the top five in Germany.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 19 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1983 | 50 |
| 1992 | 100 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON | CFNY Top 102 Songs of 1992 | 102 |
All-time and decade countdowns
Also listed as: Temple Of Love; Temple of Love '92.
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