Their music video received rotation from MTV and becomes their second international hit after Radar Love (1973) and also the group's only top-10 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and reached No. 1 on the BillboardRock Top Tracks chart.
In the 1990s,the song was later included on Rhino Records' New Wave Hits of the '80s series.
Composition
Nic Renshaw,who writes a blog for KSM Guitars,describes the guitar riff at the beginning as an "eighth-notepulse" of B D E D B followed by a sixteenth note and dotted eighth-note,D and E,and another D which is an eighth note. Renshaw considers the "disruption" more interesting than an ordinary pattern,and it acts as a "set-up ... lining up a shot" so that at 3:10,"bassist Rinus Gerritsen knocks that shot out of the park."[7]
Lead vocals are divided between Kooymans and Barry Hay. Each sings lead for one half of the first verse (first Kooymans,then Hay),and Hay sings lead for the second verse with backing by Kooymans and provides the spoken lines in the introduction and first verse. Kooymans sings lead on the choruses,backed by Hay.
Music video
The music video,directed by Dick Maas,features a storyline with lead singer Barry Hay as an espionage agent who is apprehended by three henchmen (played by the other members of the band).
The music video was one of the first to feature a cinematic storyline and dance choreography and was a hit on the fledgling MTV network (in somewhat edited form,as the original European cut was notable for a sequence featuring a topless woman),helping the song to become the second international hit for the band.[8] Golden Earring followed the success with an extensive tour of the United States,Canada and Europe. MTV commissioned the band to shoot a movie of the final "homecoming" concert of the tour in the Netherlands. The concert film,also directed by Dick Maas,included a brief introductory segment which was an extension of the Twilight Zone video;one writer described it as a "sharp looking video skit about spies or something",but criticized the actually 16mm concert footage as "grainy" and "washy yellow."[9] The concert was released in 1984 as Live from The Twilight Zone along with an album of the concert titled Something Heavy Going Down:Live From The Twilight Zone,it aired on MTV and was published as video on VHS,Beta and Laserdisc.
The Cut album cover's image of the jack of diamondsplaying card being shredded by a bullet is recreated repeatedly in the video,representing the life of the rogue agent.
Scoti*Slate included a cover on their album Good Fight in 2013.[22]
In popular culture
The song has been featured in several films and series including End of Watch (2012), The Americans (2013), Ozark (2022), and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). The opening chords of the song are featured in commercials, for injury attorney Dan Newlin and his associates, which air in the central Florida area.
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