Dead or Alive

British new wave and synthpop band from Liverpool (England), Dead or Alive was formed in 1980 on the initiative of Pete Burns (singer and lyricist), whose androgynous appearance quickly drew comparisons with Culture Club and its lead singer Boy George. The first singles, such as "I'm Falling", "Number Eleven", "It's Been Hours Now" and "The Stranger", went relatively unnoticed, and it wasn't until the release of the first album that the band really began to make a name for themselves, Sophisticated Boom Boom (#29) in 1983 that the band broke into the charts thanks to the success of some of its singles, such as "Misty Circles" (#100), "What I Want" (#88), "I'd Do Anything" (#79), and "That's the Way (I Like It) " (#22). With the second album, Youthquake (#9 in 1985), Dead or Alive reached a new level, not only with hits such as "Lover Come Back to Me" (#11), "In Too Deep" (#14) and "My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me to the Doctor)" (#23), but also with their first - and only - UK number one with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", which was to become the landmark of their career. Released in 1986, the band's third album Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know was their last to chart in the UK (#27). After Nude in 1988 (still #106 in the U.S.), three albums were released in the 1990s: Fan the Flame (Part 1) in 1990, Nukleopatra in 1995, and finally Fragile in 2000, from which the single "Hit and Run Lover" was taken. Pete Burns died of heart failure on October 23, 2016 at the age of 57, and ex-drummer Steve Coy passed away on May 4, 2018 at the age of 56. Despite all this, a final album, Fan the Flame (Part 2): The Resurrection, featuring recordings made in 1992 during the Fan the Flame (Part 1) sessions, was released posthumously in 2021.