"Glittering Prize" | ||||
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Single by Simple Minds | ||||
from the album New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) | ||||
B-side | "Glittering Prize Theme" | |||
Released | August 1982 | |||
Format | 12", 7" | |||
Genre | New wave | |||
Length | 4:02 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Writer(s) | Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Derek Forbes and Mick MacNeil | |||
Producer(s) | Peter Walsh | |||
Simple Minds singles chronology | ||||
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"Glittering Prize" is a 1982 hit single by the Scottish rock group Simple Minds, and released on their fifth studio album New Gold Dream, released the same year.
The song reached #16 in the United Kingdom and the top 20 in other countries including Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Sweden.
A compilation album, released by Simple Minds in 1992, is named after the song, and is entitled Glittering Prize 81/92,
The video continuously alternates between two main stages. The first one is set in a golden room where the band members (Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, and Mick MacNeil only), all dressed in black, perform the song. The other stage is set in a dark, museum-like room, under the surveillance of a napping security guard, and featuring hanging portraits of the band members' faces made of gold. A story unfolds in this latter stage as a young woman in a bikini and whose body is all painted in gold, stealthily penetrating the room and reaching out to a sarcophagus within which lies a pharaoh version of Kerr. After having touched his face and brought the other band members back to life she then drives away with them in a car. As the guard realises the burglary, the woman, now in the golden room, rests in a long chair and sips on a cocktail before the video ends.