Dead or Alive

English band Dead or Alive anchored the ’80s dance-pop movement with a string of hits, led by their chart-topping single “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”. • Dead or Alive took shape in 1980, growing out of other music projects that the flamboyantly androgynous singer Pete Burns had been pursuing starting in the late ’70s. The definitive lineup of the band also included bassist Mike Percy, drummer Steve Coy, and keyboardist Tim Lever. • The band’s first UK Top 40 hit came in 1984 with a cover of “That’s the Way (I Like It)” by KC and the Sunshine Band, which peaked at No. 22. The song was a single from Dead or Alive’s 1984 debut, Sophisticated Boom Boom. • Dead or Alive’s breakthrough came on their second album, 1985’s Youthquake, which included “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”. The song hit No. 1 in the UK, giving the famed production trio of Stock Aitken Waterman their first chart-topper. The song reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. • In their ’80s heyday, Dead or Alive had seven Top 40 hits in the UK and five Top 10 singles on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart in the US, including two that reached No. 1: “Brand New Lover” in 1986 and “Come Home with Me Baby” in 1989. • Their fifth studio album, 1990’s Fan the Flame, Part I, was a Japan-only release, as was their seventh and final studio release, 2000’s Fragile, a collection of rerecordings and a few new songs. • Burns was releasing solo singles in the 2000s, though he and Coy would occasionally perform together as Dead or Alive. Burns died in October 2016, ending the band.