Lies (Thompson Twins song)

"Lies" is a song by the English pop band Thompson Twins. It was released as the first single from their third studio album Quick Step & Side Kick (Side Kicks in the US), and the song peaked at number 67 on the UK singles chart. The single fared better in the United States, where it peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1983.^[1] Along with the B-side track "Beach Culture", "Lies" also spent two weeks at number one on the American dance chart in January 1983, becoming the band's second number one on this chart ("In the Name of Love" had spent five weeks atop this chart in 1982).^[2]

"Lies"
Single by Thompson Twins
from the album Quick Step & Side Kick
B-side	"Beach Culture"
Released	8 October 1982
Genre	New wave synth-pop
Length	3:08
Label	Arista
Songwriter(s)	Tom Bailey Alannah Currie Joe Leeway
Producer(s)	Alex Sadkin
Thompson Twins singles chronology
"Runaway" (1982) "Lies" (1982) "Love On Your Side" (1983)
Music video
"Lies" on YouTube

Content

Lead vocalist Tom Bailey said, "We [he and Alannah Currie] were just trying to be wacky and a little bit crazy and come up with an idea that we could be irreverent about. The chorus - that kind of catcall chorus, singing, 'lies, lies, lies' - it's the kind of thing you might see in a playground, a school, where someone's calling out like that. But we tried to make it more universal and apply it to bigger issues in the world."^[3]

Music video

The music video was directed by Maurice Phillips^{[4][unreliable source?]} and received airplay on MTV and other video programs. Three pairs of feet jut from the blankets at the foot end of an oversized bed, bouncing back and forth to the rhythm of the song, as a variety of sights pass in a room similar to Dr David Bowman's bedroom in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or a Magritte painting. The end of the video, in which a nurse pulls a privacy screen into place and leans toward the camera with thermometer in hand, establishes that the bed's occupants are patients in a hospital.

Track listing

• 12-inch single (ARIST 12486, ARIST 12 486)

1. "(Bigger & Better) Lies" – 6:35
2. "(Long) Beach Culture" – 6:48

• 7-inch single (ARIST 486)

1. "Lies" – 3:10
2. "Beach Culture" – 3:55

Charts

Chart (1982–1983)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[5]	27
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[6]	6
UK Singles (OCC)[7]	67
US Billboard Hot 100[8]	30
US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)[9] with "Beach Culture"	1
US Cash Box Top 100[10]	31

See also

• List of Billboard number-one dance singles of 1983