Personal Jesus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Personal Jesus”
Single by Depeche Mode from the album Violator
B-side	"Dangerous"
Released	August 29, 1989
Format	Vinyl record 7", 12", CD
Recorded	May 1989
Genre	Rock Synth Rock
Length	7" - 3:23 12" - 5:51
Label	Mute Records
Writer(s)	Martin Gore
Producer	Depeche Mode and Flood
Depeche Mode singles chronology
"Everything Counts (Live)" (1989) "Personal Jesus" (1989) "Enjoy the Silence" (1990)

"Personal Jesus" is Depeche Mode's twenty-third UK single, released on August 29, 1989, and the first single from the then upcoming album Violator. Since then, the title song has been covered by numerous artists. It was the first hit from the album, reaching #13 on the UK Singles Chart.

The song was inspired by the book Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley. According to songwriter Martin Gore:

It's a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It's about how Elvis was her man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; how everybody's heart is like a god in some way, and that's not a very balanced view of someone, is it?^[1]

In 2004, "Personal Jesus" was ranked #368 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ^[2], and in September 2006 it was voted as one of the "100 Greatest Songs Ever" in Q magazine.

[edit] Depeche Mode recording

Back Cover for "Personal Jesus" (CD with Alan Wilder)

In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with record producer François Kervorkian. The result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus", which featured a catchy, drum-based sound, radically different from anything the band had released thus far. The song became a big hit across the world, and is one of Depeche Mode's most successful songs, along with the following single, "Enjoy the Silence". It was the first time the guitar was used as the main instrument on a Depeche Mode song. The single took the world by storm and featured more advertising than usual with Depeche Mode, with magazine ads and a telephone campaign (people could call a number seen on magazine ads that would play the song). In addition, the single was particularly successful commercially thanks to the fact that it was released six months prior to the album it would later appear on. Up to that point, it was the best selling 12" single in Warner Brothers history. ^[3]

"Personal Jesus" has a plethora of remixes, almost unprecedented for Depeche Mode at the time. While most other Depeche Mode singles prior to "Personal Jesus" usually had band-made extended mixes, Depeche Mode started to invite more DJs and mixers to the fold, which would become the mainstay for all future Depeche Mode singles. François Kevorkian (who did the mixing for the Violator album, in general) mixed the single version, the "Holier Than Thou Approach" and the "Pump Mix", while producer Flood mixed the "Acoustic" version and the "Telephone Stomp Mix" as well as the single version and "Sensual Mix" of the single's B-side "Dangerous", a more disco-electronic track. The "Hazchemix" and "Hazchemix Edit" of "Dangerous" were mixed by Daniel Miller.

The back-cover of "Personal Jesus" features one of the band members and the back-side of a naked woman. The band member she is with depends on whether it is the 7" Vinyl (Martin Gore), the 12" Vinyl (David Gahan), the Cassette (Andrew Fletcher), or the original CD (Alan Wilder). On some copies she does not appear at all, such as the 2004 CD re-release, and on promo copies. On some limited releases, like the GBong17, all four pictures are available.

The Anton Corbijn-directed music video for "Personal Jesus" is his first Depeche Mode video in colour, and features the band in a ranch. MTV edited out some suggestive mouth movements of Martin Gore during the bridge and replaced it with some other footage from the video.

In 2002, Johnny Cash chose to cover "Personal Jesus" on what would be the last album he released during his lifetime American IV: The Man Comes Around. In October 2004, "Personal Jesus" appeared on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack, playing on alternative station Radio X. There is a Christmas episode in the first season of the sitcom Scrubs entitled "My Own Personal Jesus", referencing the song. In the original Matrix film, there is a scene where Keanu Reeves approaches an apartment labeled "101" (which happens to be the title of a 1989 Depeche Mode film), and the resident greets him with the statement "You're my own personal Jesus!".

[edit] Track listings

All songs written by Martin L. Gore

[edit] Cover versions and samples

• The distinctive chimes portion is often used as a buffer segment on National Public Radio.
• Tarakany!, the veteran Russian punk band, covered the song on Depesha dlya Depeche Mode, the 1998 Depeche Mode tribute album by artists from the former Soviet Union.
• The Christian goth-rock band Rackets and Drapes has covered the song on their album Trick or Treat.
• Gravity Kills covered the song on their 2002 LP Superstarved.
• Lollipop Lust Kill cover this song on their My So Called Knife album, also in 2002.
• Johnny Cash covered the song on his 2002 album American IV: The Man Comes Around.
• A Belgian band called Insekt covered this song on their 2004 album Ohrwürmer.
• Tori Amos did a live cover of this song on her 2005 Original Sinsuality/Summer of Sin Tour.
• The song is heavily sampled on "Beware Of The Dog", a 2006 single by British R&B singer Jamelia.
• Richard Cheese covered the song in 2005, the Dixie Hummingbirds and David Gogo in 2006.
• Rap group Westside Connection used the instrumentals for their song "Killa Cali."
• Welsh indie rock band The Automatic have performed the song, in a style similar to Manson's.
• A Spanish version of the song, titled "Tu único Dios (Personal Jesus)", was recorded by Acusicas for a Depeche Mode tribute album in 2006.
• A Colombian heavy metal band Koyi k utho also did a cover of this song.
• The song was sampled in Hilary Duff's "Reach Out", which she performed on her 2007 tour, the Dignity tour.^[4]
• This song was remixed by Dirty South.
• UK girl group Sugababes sampled this song in the track "It Ain't Easy" from their 2005 album Taller in More Ways.
• German synthpop band And One covers this song in the middle of their live performances of their song "Body Company".
• Ian Moore did a medley of Personal Jesus and his own song "Muddy Jesus" Live on earlier tours.
• The rapper Apathy sampled much of the song in his own song of the same name on the Where's Your Album?!! album.

[edit] Marilyn Manson cover

“Personal Jesus”
Single by Marilyn Manson from the album Lest We Forget: The Best of
Released	October 4, 2004
Format	Vinyl record 7", 10", CD
Recorded	2004
Genre	Industrial Metal
Length	4:06
Label	Interscope Records
Producer	Marilyn Manson and Tim Skold
Marilyn Manson singles chronology
(s)AINT (2004) Personal Jesus (2004) Against All Gods Remix (2005)

Marilyn Manson's 2004 cover version of "Personal Jesus" appears on the band's best-of compilation, Lest We Forget: The Best of, and was that album's lead single. It was recorded by Marilyn Manson with instrumentation and arrangement by Tim Skold at Manson's studio, Doppelherz Blood Treatment Facility, and mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent, a veteran producer who had also frequently worked with Depeche Mode.

The cover does not deviate in any large degree from Depeche Mode's original version, apart from additional guitar distortion. The single was accompanied by a music video directed by Manson and Nathan "Karma" Cox, which features the band members in Tableaux Vivants accompanied by rear-projection images depicting various images of American and international political figures.

Like the original version, this 2004 cover was also remixed by other artists. The "Personal Jesus Rude Photo Motor Mix" was produced by Felix Da Housecat, Brian Black and Olivier Grasset, and appears as a b-side on the vinyl versions of the single.

Manson's version of the song is also used as the theme song for professional wrestlers Austin Aries, "Miracle" Mike James and Necro Butcher

[edit] Track listings

UK Enhanced CD single

1. Personal Jesus
2. New Shit Invective – Obiter Dictum Mix by Bitteren Ende
3. Mobscene Replet – Mea Culpa Mix by Bitteren Ende
4. "Personal Jesus" video

Australian Enhanced CD single

1. Personal Jesus
2. Mobscene Replet – Mea Culpa Mix by Bitteren Ende
3. Personal Jesus (Rude Photo Motor Remix)
4. "Personal Jesus" video

German 3" CD single

1. Personal Jesus
2. This Is the New Shit (remix by Sergio Golayan)

UK 10" and UK 7"

1. Personal Jesus (LP version)
2. Personal Jesus (Rude Photo Motor Remix)

Promo/Demo CD Single

1. Personal Jesus (LP version)
2. Personal Jesus (Rude Photo Motor Remix)

[edit] References

1. ^ Spin article
2. ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time : Rolling Stone
3. ^ allmusic.com
4. ^ Bliss, Karen. "Off the Cuff with Hilary Duff". AOL Music Canada. September 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2007.

[edit] External links

• Single information from the official Depeche Mode web site
• "Personal Jesus" lyrics