B-side "Beat My Guest" Format 7" single Genre New wave
glam punk | Released 27 April 1981 Recorded 1980 Length 3:34 | |
"Stand and Deliver" is a song by English new wave band Adam and the Ants, released as the lead single from their third studio album, Prince Charming (1981). The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number one on 9 May 1981, and remained there for five weeks. It has sold 1.03 million copies in the UK. On the US Dance chart, "Stand and Deliver" peaked at #38, (along with the B side, "Beat My Guest"). In 2008, it was featured as part of the Burnout Paradise soundtrack. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 15th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
Contents
Copies of the single "Stand and Deliver" b/w "Beat My Guest" were included as a free bonus item with some vinyl copies of the US version of the album Kings of the Wild Frontier on Epic Records. Epic's cassette edition appended the two tracks to each end of either side of the tape. "Stand and Deliver" was then featured on their follow-up LP, Prince Charming, released in November 1981. The phrase "stand and deliver - your money or your life", used in the lyrics, is commonly associated with highwaymen in 18th century England.
Music video
The video features Adam Ant dressed as a "dandy highwayman" who is captured and escapes being hanged from the gallows with help from his accomplices (his band members). The video's opening sequence of Adam Ant putting on his make-up before going out on a robbery became a defining visual image for Adam Ant in the years that followed. The video also has an early appearance by Amanda Donohoe, who at the time was Adam's girlfriend.
No Doubt version
In 2009, American rock band No Doubt recorded a cover version of "Stand and Deliver". They performed the song while playing a fictional 1980s band, Snowed Out, in the Gossip Girl episode "Valley Girls", airing May 11, 2009, and also performed the song on their 2009 tour during the encore. It was eventually included on the deluxe edition bonus disc of the band's sixth studio album, Push and Shove, released on September 21, 2012.
Parodies
The first episode of the third series of the CBBC historical sketch show Horrible Histories featured a musical segment which spoofs the song and music video for "Stand and Deliver", about the real-life highwayman Dick Turpin.
"Save the Gorilla"
In 2003, Adam Ant embarked upon an ill-fated attempt to raise awareness of the plight of the endangered mountain gorilla in Central Africa by reworking "Stand and Deliver" into "Save the Gorilla." Co-writer Marco Pirroni and EMI Records blocked its release just days before its intended release on 17 November, and it never saw the light of day.