While recording a country version of the classic Simple Minds tune "Don't You (Forget About Me)" I stumbled across the song's interesting history. It appears that the band themselves, ironically, forgot all about it.
The tune was written by Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff who were scoring for the movie "The Breakfast Club". They were hoping Simple Minds would record and release it but the band was reluctant to do so. They were only interested in working on their own material. Forsey then offered the song to Bryan Ferry who turned him down, followed by Billy Idol who did likewise.
Few people are probably familiar wth the work of Corey Hart (he himself was hoping fans would not forget about him) but I do recall his song "Sunglasses At Night". He was suggested as a possible fit for the song but Forsey wasn't convinced. He was determined to lure Simple Minds to record.
This is where things got interesting. The lead singer for Simple Minds, Jim Kerr, was married to Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders at the time. She received a call from the tenacious Forsey who refused to let go of the idea that the band was the perfect match for this song.
Hynde then convinced Kerr to record the tune.
Simple Minds were laying down tracks for their new album "Once Upon a Time" and decided to set aside a mere 3 hours to belt out "Don't You (Forget About Me)". Kerr was certain the song, and the accompanying movie, would be a footnote in history and fade away, although some reports indicate other band members held some optimism. They proved to be right.
It became a number 1 hit around the world and their only song to achieve that status in the US. It only made number 7 in the UK but remained in the charts from its release in 1985 right up until 1987, making it one of the longest charting songs in history.
It goes to show that artists don't have the luxury of deciding which of their creations are memorable, and which ones...are forgotten.
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