Saturday 14 April 2012

Stand and Deliver - Adam & The Ants (1981)

Adam & The Ants,Stand & Deliver,UK,Deleted,7
"Stand and Deliver" was Adam & The Ants' most successful single. It entered the UK Top 40 at Number One and stayed there for five weeks. It was featured on their Prince Charming album. The lyric "stand and deliver - your money or your life" was a phrase commonly used by highway man Dick Turpin in 18th century England during robberies.
Adam & The Ants,Stand And Deliver Tour 1981,UK,Deleted,TOUR PROGRAMME,317745
The song's video features Adam Ant dressed as a "dandy highwayman" who is captured and escapes being hanged from the gallows with help from his accomplices (his band members). The video's opening sequence of Adam Ant putting on his makeup before going out on a robbery became a defining visual image for Adam Ant in the years that followed. The video also has an early appearance by Amanda Donohoe who at the time was Adam's girlfriend.

No Doubt released the song along with their entire music catalogue for those who bought tickets to their North American Tour in 2009, though it is not to be counted as a single officially and will not appear on their upcoming album. They alao performed the song while playing a fictional 1980s band, Snowed Out, in the Gossip Gin episode "Valley Girls" as well as in their 2009 tour during the encore.

"Stand and Deliver"
Single by Adam and the Ants
from the album Prince Charming
ReleasedSpring 1981
Formatvinyl record (7")
GenreNew Wave, Glam Rock
Length3:34 (album version)
3:08 (single version)
LabelCBS Records
Writer(s)Adam Ant & Marco Pirroni
ProducerChris Hughes
Adam and the Ants singles chronology
"Cartrouble"
(1981)
"Stand and Deliver"
(1981)
"Prince Charming"
(1981)