It turns out that Simple Minds' big hit, 'Don't You (Forget About Me)', nearly did not happen.
The band had been offered the track by Keith Forsey, who co-wrote the song with Steve Schiff for the 1985 movie The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, and starring Emilio Estrevez, brother of former Two and Half Men star Charlie Sheen.
At the time, Forsey wrote the song, while thinking of Simple Minds. However, the band had initially declined the track, as they felt it sounded like somebody trying to sound like them, lacking authenticity.
"We are Simple Minds; we don't do songs that sound like Simple Minds," frontman Jim Kerr remembered commenting. "We are Simple Minds. We do our own songs".
Following this, Forsey offered the track to Bryan Ferry, Cy Curnin, Billy Idol to name a few, but they all declined, before going back to Simple Minds and offering the track to them again.
"I think it was about six months between being approached and actually doing it – which is kind of ironic, given the success the thing went on to get", Jim Kerr said of this.
He added, "We were young, we were brattish. And when they approached us, we said, 'Great, we got tons of songs.' And they said, 'No, we've got a song for you.' And that was, like, 'Hang on a minute. You know, we wrote our own songs — we don't do other people's songs".
Jim Kerr also added that Forsey's take on this track was only one facet of what they did. While the band were also worried about getting pigeonholed too.
Quoted as saying that "with Simple Minds, there's many Simple Minds with Simple Minds", Jim Kerry added: "There was definitely an electronic art-rock phase; a lot of people associate us with the big MTV-pop age. Other people you talk to and they say, 'Oh, Simple Minds are stadium rock.' I'll say, 'Hang on a minute, I think it can be all those things.' We have been all of those things".
Following a three hour recording session at a North London studio, Simple Minds released 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' pm February 20 1985.
If Forsey had not been so persistent, Simple Minds may not have smashed the glass ceiling which was the US charts, with this track garnering a maiden chart topping Billboard single.
30 years later, it's still a hit. Check it out below.
In more recent news, Simple Minds have announced a North American Tour, where they will be joined by Soft Cell and Modern English. More on this from Nova here.
