Released August 1982 (1982-08) | Format 12", 7" Length 4:02 | |
B-side "Glittering Prize Theme" | ||
"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,
Music video
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.