Gold (Spandau Ballet song)


"Gold" is a 1983 single by English new wave band Spandau Ballet, taken from their third album True.

Production history

wrote both the music and lyrics; the song was produced by the partnership of Steve Jolley and Tony Swain.
The music video was filmed on location in Carmona, Spain and directed by Brian Duffy. A 'making of' video featured photographs of the band taken by his son, Chris Duffy. The video featured Sadie Frost as a gold-painted nymph, in one of her earlier roles.
Some parts of the music video were also filmed in Leighton House, which was also used in the video for "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers.

Release

The song is Spandau Ballet's second-highest charting single in both the United Kingdom and the United States, behind their previous release, "True", reaching #2 on the UK Singles Chart, and reaching #29 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Legacy

Ian Gittins described the song in The Guardian as a "brash blare of self-belief that appears to be constructed from pure titanium. It may be the least subtle song ever written, but, like Spandau Ballet, it mainlines sheer chutzpah." Tony Hadley said, "'Gold' is the song which even today's kids enjoy singing along to in student bars up and down the country, and is one of main reasons I get so many corporate shows. It's requested all the time at awards shows." He said this to explain his earnings being higher since the start of the 21st century than they had been in the 1980s.
The song has been used in two adverts for Bold laundry soap, in 2012 with child gymnasts and in 2019 with an employable woman.
"Gold" was re-recorded in a semi-acoustic, unplugged-like style for Spandau Ballet's 2009 album Once More.
The song has featured in various shows and films. As part of the UK radio station Absolute Radio's celebrations for the 2012 Summer Olympics, Christian O'Connell, the network's breakfast show host, pledged to play the song for every gold medal won by Team GB. Spandau Ballet's lead singer Tony Hadley was also invited onto the programme for a live performance of "Gold".
The song has also been turned into a football chant, with fans of West Ham replacing "gold" with "Joey Cole" or "Carlton Cole", both players who turned out for the team; fans of Celtic also chanted it when Carlton Cole played for them. Irish side Bohemian have adopted it as their club song, replacing the chorus of "gold" with "Bohs".
"Gold" was used in the 2002 video game on the fictional in-game radio station "Wave 103". The song was also the theme music for the fictional game show Gold Rush in the 2001 Only Fools and Horses episode "If They Could See Us Now".
The song featured in a flashback in the "Buntin" episode of Still Game, where Boaby discovers that Pete the jakey has more about him than meets the eye, leading the characters to suspect he may be a spy.
The song was featured on an episode of MTV Cribs that featured the virtual band Gorillaz showcasing the attributes of Noodle, their guitarist.
;Cover versions

7" version

  1. "Gold" – 3:54
  2. "Gold " – 2:40

    12" version

  3. "Gold " – 7:12
  4. "Foundation " – 3:54

    Charts

Certifications