Why Simple Minds nearly didn’t record Don’t You Forget About Me

Simple Minds have just marked their 40th anniversary, but frontman Jim Kerr admits they almost turned down the chance of recording their biggest hit – Don’t You Forget About Me

Simple Minds know the power of smart choices — and second thoughts.

The Scottish band initially turned down the offer of recording Don’t You (Forget About Me) for 1985 movie The Breakfast Club.

The song’s writer and producer, Keith Forsey, was a huge Simple Minds fan who penned the anthemic rock track with them in mind. As a band who wrote their own material they stubbornly declined it, with the track then offered to Bryan Ferry, Corey Hart and Billy Idol (who would later record his own version).

They eventually relented — rush-recording it with frontman Jim Kerr adding his own touches (the ‘la la la la la’s being one of them) – and the track became their only US No.1. It’s had almost 300 million streams on Spotify and 150 million views on You Tube. 

“It’s a generation’s song but at the same time different generations come along and find it,” Kerr says.

“There’s just something about the energy in that song. It surprises us because we didn’t write it and we recorded it with an attitude of ‘Let’s just get this thing done, it probably won’t do anything anyway’. To this day it’s still such a surprise that it went on to do what it did do.”

Back in 1985, at the peak of their American success, the band were touring the US when Live Aid happened – they performed the song on the Philadelphia leg of the charity concert.

“Don’t get me wrong, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Stevie Wonder were on the (American) bill,” Kerr recalls. “But we wanted to be in Wembley, where Queen, Bowie, U2 and McCartney were. So we were up there feeling homesick. But it didn’t do us any harm …”

Last year Kerr sang the song with Arcade Fire in Glasgow, to a whole new audience.

“They’re one of the great bands of the last 15 years. I had a bit of a panic attack – what the f--- am I doing here? But as soon as I got up there was such a feeling of warmth.”

Simple Minds followed Don’t You (Forget About Me) up with an original, Alive and Kicking, which reached No. 3 in the US. Another smart choice – Kerr reveals they turned down a lucrative offer to re-record the song for a major fast food chain.

“They wanted us to change the words from ‘Alive and Kicking’ to ‘I like fried chicken’. Our band had so much debt for the longest time. At that stage we were out of the woods but we weren’t rolling it by any means. They were offering a fortune, but we thought, no. I actually thought it was Candid Camera, and someone was playing a joke on us. But they were serious.”

Simple Minds circa 1984: the band formed 42 years ago in Scotland. Pic: Supplied

Both songs feature on Simple Minds’ two releases this year – Live In the City Of Angels (recorded on last year’s sold out US tour) and new compilation 40: The Best of 1979-2019.

The latter marks 40 years since the release of their debut album.

“We had no concept of fame or fortune or longevity,” Kerr says. “My parents weren’t even 40 years old when we started the band. The only guys doing it then were the old blues guys. People say now ‘Why do you still do it?’ I remember looking at the old black guys still playing the blues and it would never occur to me to ask them that, because it was written on their faces, because that’s who they are. I’ve come to accept this is who we are.”

Choosing which 40 songs to represent the band’s four decades was difficult.

“It’s the same with playing live, it is tough. When we tour we very rarely play the same set, you chop and change. Obviously you play the songs people expect to hear but we have audiences within audiences — the greatest hits audience and the hardcore audience — and you try to cater to them all. It’s never easy but it’s a good problem to have, I’d rather have too many songs to fit into a show that people want to hear than the opposite.”

The band will tour Australia next year with hand-picked guests Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, whose hits include If You Leave (also from an ‘80s movie, Pretty In Pink), Joan Of Arc, Locomotion and Enola Gay.

Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr have been the two constants in Simple Minds. Pic: Paul Cox

Kerr has a special fondness for Australia. Their first tour here was in 1981, when they opened for Icehouse. Icehouse then went to the UK and opened for Simple Minds.

“It was a reciprocal deal,” Iva Davies of Icehouse remembers. “Simple Minds hadn’t cracked the world, but they were threatening to. I remember Lovesong had been big in Australia through Countdown, Jim Kerr told me that song really launched them in the rest of the world because suddenly they’d had a hit somewhere. They were making this electronic punk music, like we were, they were driven by this new keyboard technology.”

Kerr said that first tour was vital in establishing their loyal fanbase in Australia.

“It also helped Icehouse get some chart success in the UK. Iva was so great to us. I’d love to write with Iva, it just never happened. He’s such a talent. I don’t know if you guys take him for granted because he’s an Australian legend but he’s really, really talented as a musician.”

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In January 1984 Simple Minds returned to Australia on a tour that also included Talking Heads, Eurythmics and the Pretenders. Kerr met Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde on that tour by May that same year they married (they split in 1990). Their daughter, Yasmin was born in 1985. Now in her 30s, she had twin sons.

“Chrissie and I were just together seeing the grandkids,” Kerr says. “We all got on really well on that tour of Australia, obviously Chrissie and I just got on a bit more than the other people in the bands did!”

Simple Minds and OMD, A Day on the Green Kings Park Perth November 26 2020, A Day on the Green Rochford Wines Victoria November 28, Margaret Court Arena December 1, First State Super Theatre Sydney December 3, A Day on the Green Bimbadgen Hunter Valley NSW December 5, A Day on the Green Sirromet Wines Mount Cotton Queensland December 6. On sale now

Originally published as Why Simple Minds nearly didn’t record Don’t You Forget About Me