“The Ghost In You” by The Psychedelic Furs

"The Ghost in You" is the Psychedelic Furs gone soft-focus, the second single from Mirror Moves, their fourth album, in 1984. Singer Richard Butler wrote it with bassist Tim Butler, and the band arranged it themselves, with Keith Forsey producing and playing the drums and percussion as well.

Richard Butler's voice is all sandpaper, but here he wraps it around a shimmering, heart-on-sleeve melody, and the band glide beneath him: John Ashton's guitar chiming like a bell tower in the fog, Tim Butler's bass keeping a steady, wistful walk, and Mars Williams' saxophone curling through like cigarette smoke. It's romantic without going gooey, a ballad for people who still dress in black. Steve Hodge engineered it, and Dave Wittman mixed it and added some engineering of his own.

Columbia released it, and it was no chart-buster: No. 59 on the US Billboard Hot 100, 68 in the UK and 85 in Canada. The British filmmaker Tim Pope directed the video.

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