Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Relax’ 12″ single

Paul Morley: “…with Frankie, ‘Relax’, Frankie already had that image ‘cos a friend of their had done it (Anne Yvonne Gilbert). I wanted to put a pornographic novel on the back of the 12″. I remember reading it out to Holly back then because they wanted to know what was going on, I know it sounds daft because everyone just assumes I did it behind their back. So I had to read out this pornographic novel to Holly and you could see he was slightly confused that the record company was telling him that this pornography was going on his single! (laughs) Well I think he was more worried about this causing him to not make any sales than the record company!”

A word on the ‘Sex Mix’ and the differences between the three 12″ mixes of ‘Relax’:

All 12″ copies of ‘Relax’ have the same cover and labels – apart from the reissued 16.24 minute ‘Sex mix’ (re-titled ‘Original’ mix). The only way to tell them apart is by the length of the mix and the run out stamp on the inner vinyl groove.
The ‘Sex Mix’ is the original 16.24 mix which bares little relation to the single version at all and is more of a jam session with all the various parts and samples. This has 1U near the end of the run out stamp.

The ‘Sex Mix’ (edition 2) is approx 8.40 mins long and is a shorter edit of the ‘Sex Mix’ – run out stamp 2U.

The ‘New York Mix / US Remix / US Mix / New York Night Mix’ – it has many names – is approx 7.20 mins and is the one most people know and think of as the ‘Sex Mix’. It bares the most relation to the regular single as the second half of it is basically the hit version, preceded by a long synth-led instrumental version – run out stamp 4U.

The ‘Original Mix’ is a reissue of the 16.24 min ‘Sex Mix’, post-No.1 hit and comes in a grey ZTT house bag rather than the 2 bodies picture cover all the others come in. Run out stamp 5U.

There was no 3U A side cut but there IS another 8.16 minute remix that lies somewhere between the first and third mixes and is very different, called the ‘Sex Mix Edit’. Not to be confused with the edit of the ‘Sex Mix’ (edition 2) this first surfaced on the Japanese ‘Return To The Pleasuredome’ compilation. It’s speculated that it was created by Luis Jardim, in December ’84, labelled ’12” Mix of Relax’ and later mislabelled ‘Sex Mix Edit’. This version is now available on ‘The Art of the 12″ vol.1’ compilation.

artist: Frankie Goes To Hollywood title: Relax format: 12″ single design: XLZTT photography: John Stoddart and Anne Yvonne Gilbert illustration: Anne Yvonne Gilbert cat. no: 12ZTAS 1 date: 31/10/83 art of notes: Both photographer John Stoddart and illustrator Anne Yvonne Gilbert were friends of the band before they signed to ZTT. The cover illustration was originally created for an article about breasts in Men Only magazine, June 1983. The two bodies image is at a completely different angle on the 12″ to the 7″. Many people questioned which was the correct way to display the sleeve(s) at the time as the original image has the man kneeling but, if you take it that all ZTT sleeves opened on the right hand side, then this is the correct orientation, back up by the reverse design when flipped over. Note the subtle re-wording of the lyrics on the 7″ sleeve compared to the 12″, ‘suck’ on the 7″ is replaced by ‘go’ on the 12″. The person in the main photo on the back cover is Paul Rutherford.

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