Fade to Grey (Visage song)
"Fade to Grey" is a song by British synth-pop band Visage, released in November 1980 as the second single from their debut album, Visage (1980), on Polydor Records.
"Fade to Grey"
The song was the band's most successful single. It entered the singles charts in late 1980, peaking at no. 8 in the UK Singles Chart and reaching no. 1 in West Germany and Switzerland. Steve Strange was on lead vocals; the French lyrics were spoken by Rusty Egan's Luxembourgish girlfriend Brigitte Arendt.[5]
The accompanying music video for the song became one of the first videoclips that Kevin Godley and Lol Creme directed, before they became known for their works with the Police, Duran Duran and Herbie Hancock.[6][7]
Authorship[edit]
The song features the same lyrics in two languages, English and French. The English lyrics are sung, whereas the French lyrics are spoken by a female voice. Steve Strange and Midge Ure both claimed to have been the one who came up with the idea for the French vocal in the track.[10][13] On the finished track, the French vocal was performed by Brigitte Arendt, a young student from Luxembourg who was Rusty Egan's girlfriend at the time.[14] On the single and album, the song is credited to Billy Currie, Chris Payne and Midge Ure.[15] In his 2002 autobiography, Strange said it was not fair to credit the song to Ure, Currie and Payne only, since his input was significant and he was "the focal point of the group".[13]
Music video[edit]
Visage's first music video was for this song, and was directed by Godley & Creme.[16] Appearing with Steve Strange in the video was his friend Julia Fodor, who mimed the French lyrics in the video.[17][18] The clip was included on band's 1986 video release, Visage.
Sampling[edit]
In 1990, the same verse melody as in the Visage's song "Fade to Grey" is used for the song "The Only One I Know", performed by the British band The Charlatans, ten years later.