Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax

"Relax" was initially a fairly unregarded single on the fledgling ZTT label, troubling the lower reaches of the UK Top 50 throughout the latter end of 1983. However, it crucially proved to have somewhat unique staying power, never dropping more than a couple of chart places one week before leaping forward ten places the next. In the absence at this stage of any discernible marketing hyperbole, the record appeared to make its way entirely upon its own merits into the lower reaches of the Top Forty by January 1984.

At this point, several events seem to have conspired simultaneously to help propel "Relax" to notoriety:

* "Relax" was at number 35 in the first UK charts of 1984.
* On Thursday January 5, Frankie Goes To Hollywood performed "Relax" on the BBC flagship TV chart show, Top Of The Pops.
* By January 10, "Relax" had risen to number 6 in the UK singles chart.
* On Wednesday January 11 1984, it is believed that Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read publicly expressed his distaste for both the record's suggestive sleeve (designed by Yvonne Gilbert) and its evocative lyrics as expressed thereon, and he immediately flexed his radio muscles in effecting a very public, albeit rather personal, ban on the single.

The record sleeve, of course, did advise:

"Relax, don't do it, when you want to suck it to it, Relax don't do it, when you want to come."

* Belatedly backing up their key - if somewhat easily flustered - breakfast DJ, BBC Radio had instigated a complete and utter corporation ban on the single a reported two days later (although certain prominent night-time BBC shows - including those of Kid Jensen and John Peel - would continue to play the record, as they saw fit, throughout 1984).[2]
* The now-banned "Relax" was number 2 behind "Pipes of Peace" in the charts by 17 January.
* "Relax" hit the number one spot on 24 January - during which time, the BBC Radio ban had extended to Top of the Pops as well, which was reduced to showing a still picture of the group during their climactic Number One announcement, before airing a performance by a distinctly non-Number One artiste.

This went on for the five weeks that "Relax" was at number one. The single remained on the charts for a record consecutive forty-two weeks. It would rise up from a declining chart position to number two during the UK summer of 1984 whilst Frankie's follow-up single "Two Tribes" held the UK number one spot.

The ban became an embarrassment for the BBC, especially given that UK commercial radio stations were still playing the song. Later in 1984 the ban was lifted and "Relax" featured on both the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops and Radio 1's rundown of the best-selling singles of the year.