"Baby Don't Say Goodbye" Released: 26 October 1989[5]
Nude is the fourth studio album by British pop group Dead or Alive, released in Japan on December 18th, 1988 and in Europe and America in July 1989 on Epic Records.[6]Nude marked the first Dead or Alive release which was solely produced by core members Pete Burns and Steve Coy, as during the album's production, Tim Lever and Mike Percy were fired from the band. While the album was not as commercially successful in the band's native United Kingdom as their previous offerings, the album peaked within the top 10 in Japan, charted for 18 weeks[7], and produced the band's biggest hit single in the territory, Turn Around and Count 2 Ten, which peaked atop the Oricon Singles Chart. The album was re-released in the UK in 2016 as a part of the comprehensive box setSophisticated Boom Box MMXVI.
During the first couple of months of writing and recording, Mike and Tim seemed to be acting a little distant and insular, and after a bit of investigation, we discovered that they were building their own professional recording studio where they lived. When we asked why, they said they wanted to move into concentrating on record production work on their own, didn't want to be in a band and touring and away from their families all of the time and say they were leaving the band at the end of the Nude album recording! Well, excuse me boys, but I don't tolerate disloyalty and people making plans behind my back. I discussed it with Steve, and he and I decided that we didn't want them working half-heartedly on an album that we knew had to be the very best we could make, so we fired them on the spot, and told them to go concentrate on giving 100% to their new career as producers. It was a tough decision to make, but they made the decision for us.[8]
Promotion
Three singles were released to promote the release of Nude, the Japanese number-one Turn Around and Count 2 Ten, and US Dance hits Come Home with Me Baby (#1) and Baby Don't Say Goodbye (#6)[9]. I Cannot Carry On was lifted from the album as an airplay single in Japan in 1988, but did not receive a commercial release. In the UK, Baby Don't Say Goodbye was to be released as the third and final single from the album in 1989 (catalogue number BURNS C6), however the release was quickly withdrawn. The mixes from this planned release would later feature on the box set Still Spinnin': The Singles Collection 1983-2021 in February 2024. Furthermore, Give It Back (That Love Is Mine) appeared on various Epic sampler releases in both Japan[10][11] and the US[12] in 1989, but no official single release ever materialised. In support of the album, the band embarked on the Disco in Dream Tour alongside fellow Stock Aitken Waterman-produced acts Kylie Minogue and Sinitta in Japan, which opened in Nagoya at the Nagoya Rainbow Hall on October 2nd, 1989 and concluded in Osaka at the Osaka-jō Hall on October 8th, 1989. The performance at the Tokyo Dome, recorded on October 6th, 1989, was broadcast on NHK, wherein the band performed multiple tracks from Nude.
Critical reception
Reviewing the album for Melody Maker (issue dated August 5th, 1989), Steve Sutherland concluded the album's lyrical content was "rife with confrontations, accusations, proclamations, anything that keeps Burns centre-stage, preening himself through roles like a campOlivier," whilst noting that, "stylistically, Nude [hadn't] moved much anywhere from the exhilarating hi-NRG of Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know." Retrospectively reviewing the album in 2021, Connor Grotto for RetroPop Magazine described Nude as the "perfect Dead or Alive album" and "their strongest offering overall".[13]
To accompany the album and to promote the concert tour Disco in Dream[19] in Japan, a remix album entitled Nude - Remade Remodelled was released exclusively in the territory on September 21st, 1989. Featuring the first six tracks from Nude remixed by Burns and Coy and the 12" Version of Come Home with Me Baby, the album proved a success in Japan, reaching number 17 on the Oricon Albums Chart and charting for six weeks.[20]
