Depeche Mode’s 1990 single “Enjoy the Silence” was a chart-topping hit that helped cement the group as one of the era’s defining acts — yet one band member was initially disappointed in the way the track evolved.
Recorded during sessions for Depeche Mode’s groundbreaking Violator album, the tune was penned by the band’s primary songwriter, Martin Gore. His original concept sounded very different from the final result.
“When Martin first came up with a demo for ‘Silence,’ it was kind of half a song,” frontman Dave Gahan recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “Just a piano and these very slow, ballad-y couple of verses.”
“It was more of a ballad,” concurred Gore, however bandmate Alan Wilder recognized the tune’s full potential could be unlocked with a bit more energy. “Alan had this idea to speed it up and make it a bit more disco,” Gore continued, “which I was really averse to at first, because I thought ‘the song is called ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and it’s supposed to be about serenity, and serenity doesn’t go with the disco beat’.”
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Producer Flood agreed with Wilder’s suggestion and tried to get Gore on board. “Martin, you could say, was dubious about the whole idea,” Flood recalled during a Q&A decades later. “But that was good, because what that did was add a real tension. So that adds an edge that was like an undercurrent to the whole thing.”
‘It’s Not My Kind of Disco’
The band began working the song around a classic disco beat, slowly adding to the track with various layers of synthesizers, atmospheric elements and choir sounds.
“It’s not my kind of disco,” Gore reportedly muttered, even as the song was taking shape. Flood encouraged Gore to come up with a melody that could lie on top of the tune’s propulsive backbone. When the rocker created the now distinctive guitar line of “Enjoy the Silence,” everything suddenly clicked.
“I was sulking for about two days,” Gore admitted, “but after he sped it up, I got used to it and added the guitar part, which adds to the whole atmosphere. We could really hear that it had a crossover potential. I have to say that I was sulking for two days for no reason.”
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The rest of the song came together quickly, as Gahan’s vocals brought to life the lyrics Gore had penned, including the famous chorus: “All I ever wanted / All I ever needed / Is here in my arms / Words are very unnecessary / They can only do harm.” In true Depeche Mode form, the song maintained the melancholic overtones of Gore’s original vision, while its updated arrangement turned it into a synth-pop smash.
“Enjoy the Silence” was released as the second single from Violator. It peaked at No. 8 in the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 1 on the Alternative chart on April 21, 1990. The track remains one of the band’s defining songs, and its success helped propel Violator to multi-platinum sales.
Despite his reluctance to change “Enjoy the Silence,” Gore admitted he was happy with the tune by the time it was released into the world. “I think that’s the only time in our history when we all looked at each other and said, ‘I think this might be a hit,’” he later confessed.
Listen to ‘Enjoy the Silence’ by Depeche Mode
