Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive were an English pop band formed in 1979 in Liverpool by Pete Burns (vocals). After several unsuccessful indie singles, they signed to Epic Records in 1983, achieving their first chart placement with "Misty Circles" from their first album Sophisticated Boom Boom (1984). At that time, the band consisted of Burns, Steve Coy (drums), Tim Lever (keyboards), Mike Percy (bass), and Wayne Hussey (guitar). Burns and Coy remained the core of the band for the rest of its history, with Hussey leaving in 1984 (going onto Sisters of Mercy and later the Mission), while Lever and Percy both left in 1988.

The band achieved seven UK and two US Top 40 singles, their biggest hit being "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" from their second album Youthquake (1985), which reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart and No. 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while also topping the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the US. Their other UK or US Top 40 hits were "That's the Way (I Like It)" from Sophisticated Boom Boom, "Lover Come Back to Me", "In Too Deep" and "My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me to the Doctor)" from Youthquake, and "Brand New Lover" and "Something in My House" from third album Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know (1986). They also topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart a second time with "Come Home With Me Baby" from their fourth album Nude (1988). All of their first three albums went Top 40 on the UK albums chart, while Youthquake was their only Top 40 album in the US, reaching No. 31 on the Billboard 200.

Pete Burns died on October 23, 2016, bringing Dead or Alive to a definitive end. Steve Coy died on May 4, 2018. In 2021, Fan the Flame (Part 2): The Resurrection, a "lost" album recorded in the 1990s, was completed and issued for the very first time.

"You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" charted again in 2006 following Burns's appearance on the television reality show Celebrity Big Brother, and again in 2022 after its inclusion on season 4 of Stranger Things. In December 2016, Billboard ranked Dead or Alive as the 96th most successful dance artist of all time.