Let’s dig into the Frankie Goes To Hollywood gem that underpins ‘All Of Us Strangers’

If you’ve seen Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed fantasy drama All Of Us Strangers, you will know that it features the Frankie Goes To Hollywood song, “The Power of Love”.

Although best known for their debut hit, “Relax”, the use of “The Power of Love” in All Of Us Strangers is a timely reminder that they were more than a one-hit-wonder.

Although “The Power of Love” didn’t chart on the Billboard 100, it was the group’s third and final number one in their home country on its release in 1984. It also went top ten in Australia and several European countries.

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Frankie Goes To Hollywood broke barriers by featuring two out-gay members (Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford) alongside three straight musicians. The band formed in Liverpool in 1980. They were signed to the British record label ZTT in 1983, which was overseen by acclaimed musician and producer Trevor Horn.

Horn polished the band’s sound and the label hyped up Frankie’s in-your-face and unapologetic stance regarding sexuality and hedonism. Tied to the thumping, irresistible disco of debut single “Relax” and a controversial video, the formula struck gold. The song shot to the top of the charts around the world.

Frankie followed it up with “Two Tribes”, an apocalyptic slice of dancefloor action reflecting Cold War era paranoia, and their debut album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome.

“Keep the vampires from your door”

For their third single, they showcased their more romantic side. Holly Johnson penned the lyrics in 1983 when he was still claiming unemployment benefits and before the band found success.

“I’ll protect you from the hooded claw,” he says on the song’s spoken-word opening. “Keep the vampires from your door.”

The finished, Horn-produced version is not a million miles away from the band’s original. Horn added strings. And Johnson has always held it up as one of his finest moments.

“I always felt like ‘The Power of Love’ was the record that would save me in this life,” he once said. “There is a Biblical aspect to its spirituality and passion; the fact that love is the only thing that matters in the end.”

However, by the time of its release, things were beginning to sour for the band. After a hugely successful breakthrough year, they were beginning to question the contract they’d signed with ZTT.

Johnson eventually left the band in 1987 and embarked on a two-year legal dispute with the label. A judge later decided, in what many in the UK music industry regarded as a landmark decision, that the original contracts they signed were “not a fair bargain.”

The video

Besides the issue of money, ZTT also appeared to take over full control of the band’s image and marketing.

As “The Power of Love” was released at the end of November, the label marketed it as a Christmas single. Its cover artwork featured Titian’s Assumption of The Virgin.

A video was shot featuring a recreation of the nativity. The band members were initially not even included. Later on, they were added as cherubs in a frame around the nativity scene when the label had second thoughts about their non-inclusion.

Johnson later dismissed the visuals as “chocolate box”. Even one of its directors, Kevin Godley (of Godley and Creme fame), later admitted, “The finished thing looks rather pantomimey, rather than like the great Tintoretto paintings we were aiming for.”

Paul Morley was in charge of marketing at ZTT. He told The Guardian in 2022 the band had no input into the video.

“My ego had taken over by then and it was very normal to commission video makers without the band’s involvement. I am sad about that. I always felt it was Holly’s best song. It just seemed to have come from somewhere else. The beauty and the pain of it, and coming off the world at the time, as it was, with AIDS … It seemed to be a desperately beautiful song.”

The lyrics don’t mention Christmas at all. However, the video cemented the notion in the minds of many that “The Power of Love” is a holiday song.

This was reinforced in 2012 when a cover by Gabrielle Aplin soundtracked the annual festive commercial from department store John Lewis. It shot to number one in the UK.

Holly Johnson, after he escaped his ZTT contract, also released his own version, in 1999.

All Of Us Strangers

All Of Us Strangers is about Adam, a gay man (played by Andrew Scott) in his 40s. He lost his parents in a car crash when he was 11, in the 1980s. The movie is about surviving trauma, growing up gay in a straight world, and the healing power of love. Here, it’s Paul Mescal’s character, Harry, promising to keep the vampires away.

If you’ve not seen it yet, the movie builds to an unexpected, heartbreaking twist. Its final scenes are soundtracked to “The Power of Love”, reminding us that it’s a song for the ages and definitely not just for the holidays.

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