"Personal Jesus" | ||||
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Single by Depeche Mode | ||||
from the album Violator | ||||
B-side | "Dangerous" | |||
Released | 29 August 1989[1] | |||
Studio | ||||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | Mute | |||
Songwriter(s) | Martin L. Gore | |||
Producer(s) |
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Depeche Mode singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Personal Jesus" on YouTube |
"Personal Jesus" is a song by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released as the lead single from their seventh studio album, Violator (1990), in 1989. It reached No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single was their first to enter the US top 40 since 1984's "People Are People" and was their first gold-certified single in the US.[7] In Germany, "Personal Jesus" is one of the band's longest-charting songs, staying on the West German Singles Chart for 23 weeks.
In 2004, "Personal Jesus" was ranked No. 368 in Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time",[8] and in September 2006 it was voted as one of the "100 Greatest Songs Ever" in Q magazine. "Personal Jesus" was rereleased as a single on 30 May 2011 for the Depeche Mode remix album Remixes 2: 81–11, with the leading remix by the production team Stargate. The song has been covered by numerous artists, including Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson, Def Leppard, and Iggy Pop.
Given that, by now. Depeche Mode had become a stadium phenomenon in the States. Violator seemed an oddly introspective way to sell six million units (the synth-rock single "Personal Jesus" was the exception to the rule).