Frankie Goes to Hollywood “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” released 35 years ago today, March 18th, 1985. 12″ single, super-limited (300 copies) test pressing on clear vinyl. And according to the letter included by Jeff J. White of Island Records, he stole the pressings for radio stations from Island’s “never to be distributed vault.”

“Welcome to the Pleasuredome” was FGTH’s fourth and final single from their debut smash album Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, released in fall of ‘84. The title track wen to #2 in the UK, the only single from the record which didn’t hit #1 (stymied by Phil Collins’, that f*ckr, and Phillip Bailey’s duet “Easy Lover”) in the UK; it went to #48 in the US. There’s a whole slew of versions of this track, the single and album versions differ and even the 7″ single had variations and it was impossible to know which one you got based on the cover and catalogue numbers which were identical, though I guess the paper sleeves varied in thickness. Weird. Because it’s a test pressing, this copy has different tracks than the commercial release (though it’s not that dissimilar from the US and UK 12″ – those included the track “Get It On” (T. Rex) and “Happy Hi!”). Side A has “Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Trevor Horn Remix)” which was the standard remix for the commercial versions. Side B has a remix I’ve never heard before and doesn’t seem to be available on any other releases (though I’m sure someone out there will correct me if I’m wrong): “Welcome to the Pleasuredome (Vocal/KZAP Edit)” and it’s super-cool with extended instrumentals, acoustic-ish guitar jams and extra Holly Johnson sing-snarls. Also on Side B is “Relax (Vocal/Live Version).”

I saw Frankie Goes to Hollywood perform a few months after the release of this single in July, 1985 in Irvine, CA. My dad and I traveled to Los Angeles that summer for a family reunion and he somehow got us hooked up with really great seats for this concert. FGTH were massively popular in ‘85 and at the time were my second-favorite band (behind Duran Duran of course). It was a wild show and I’m sure my dad was massively uncomfortable the entire time. I was pretty clueless as to the context of all of their songs so I just danced and screamed the entire time (I was like 13 years old so of course I did).