Just Missed My Top 200: Alphaville - Universal Daddy

Here it is, the song Marian Gold refuses to play live anymore. The song that Alphaville is embarrassed of. The song they have disowned.

"Universal Daddy" was the second single off Afternoons In Utopia, the band's 1986 masterpiece. The poppiest single in their entire discography, it became a top 15 hit across Europe and reached #35 on the US dance chart. A success by any measure, right?

Alphavile disagrees. Calling the song "immature", frontman Marian Gold has blacklisted it from the band's concert setlist for the past several decades.

I actually like the song a lot and considered it for my Top 200, on which Alphaville took the #182 ("Big In Japan"), #112 ("Golden Feeling"), and #34 ("Jerusalem") spots. Despite the band's disavowal of the track - and its extremely cheesy video - "Universal Daddy" almost made it as their fourth entry.

Bonus! Here's "Ariana", from Alphaville's 1988 sales disaster The Breathtaking Blue, the album that almost ended their career.

After the one-two gutpunch of the failed pop turn ("Universal Daddy") and then the bomb that was The Breathtaking Blue, it's a wonder that Alphaville was able to right the ship with later songs like "Hurricane"...

..and the amazing "Elegy"...

I also like their version of "High School Confidential" much better than the original by Rough Trade.

Be back next week with another song that didn't quite make the list.