Depeche Mode “People Are People” 1984. US/Canada-only compilation album. Today, May 9th, is DM singer Dave Gahan’s 60th birthday (b. David Callcott, 1962). Sire Records released People Are People to the North American market prior to DM’s fourth LP Some Great Reward (September ’84) to help generate more interest in the band and expose the audience to both new and earlier singles. The soonish-to-be hit single “People Are People” leads off the record (it finally charted in the US in May ’85, going to #13). There are a couple of tracks from the their third album Construction Time Again: “Love, In Itself” (#21 UK), “Told You So” and “Pipeline” plus two Construction-era tracks: the ’83 non-album single “Get the Balance Right!,” (#13 UK), “Work Hard” which was the B-side to “Everything Counts” (#6 UK) and the extended version of that single, “Everything Counts (In Larger Amounts).” There’s only one A Broken Frame related song, “Now This is Fun,” which was the b-side to “See You” (1982, #6 UK). I have all of these tracks on other albums, singles and/or 12″ singles but People Are People is a nice addition to my Depeche Mode stash; Allmusic calls it a release that is “solely for the hardcore fans.”