After producing five critically acclaimed art-rock albums, Simple Minds decided to adopt a more radio-friendly sound. This was one of the first results and it became their first UK Top 20 hit. This new slick, sophisticated sound caused the band to be lumped together with other bands such as Duran Duran, as part of the New Romantic movement.
Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr calls this song "a story of ambition." It was crafted for hit potential. "I needed not much more than a short blast of inspiration to find some words that could act in summing up perfectly the positive feel of the music," he explained on the band's website. "In addition I needed a melody to dance around the structure. Having grown up fascinated with pop music, studying it all the time - unaware as I did - as a kid with imagination, meant I was automatically equipped to write 'Miracle' and many other lyrics of a similar nature. More than anything what I needed there and then as I attempted to write our first bona-fide hit song, was to discover something that would strike clearly and was obviously catchy enough to lodge in the brain of any casual listeners who came across it on radio."
Musically, "Promised You a Miracle" was inspired by an obscure 1981 dance song called "Too Through" by Bad Girls, with lead vocals by Jocelyn Brown, best known for singing "I've got the Power!" in the Snap! hit. The band was in New York City when the song came on the radio station Kiss FM. Simple Minds drummer Kenny Hyslop recorded it on his Walkman and played it for the band, which loved the sound. During a jam session, they used it as a jumping off point and came up with their own groove that formed the track.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.