Alive and Kicking

Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: Simple Minds are one of the most misremembered bands in the history of pop music. Most people have a version of them stored somewhere in their brain and that version is almost entirely built on one song they didn’t even write. A song recorded as a favor, released reluctantly, that went on to define them permanently in the eyes of everyone who wasn’t paying close enough attention. The song from The Breakfast Club is good, but this song is great.

“Alive and Kicking” came out in 1985, the lead single from Once Upon a Time, and it did everything right. It hit number three in the UK. It cracked the top five in the US. it was a success by any measure. Yet it somehow it still takes a back seat to “Don’t You (Forget About Me.” I get it. That song was used during an iconic ending of a movie that’s beloved by many. That’s fine and dandy, but I think “Alive and Kicking” should be saying “Don’t you forget about me because I’m the better song.”

Here’s what “Alive and Kicking” actually is: a towering, emotionally overwhelming piece of stadium rock that should be one of the first songs anyone brings up when discussing 80s pop music. It starts out as what seems like a standard pop song, but there are multiple layers of production in the background that all meld together to create a unique sound that makes this song fun and somehow intimate. So we’re already in a fun spot, but when that chorus kicks in (holy cow) it enters a new stratosphere. I dare you to listen to the chorus of this song and feel melancholy. Alive and Kicking is pure joy and the chorus focuses all of that joy directly into your brain through your ears.

Jim Kerr’s vocal performance is powerful yet warm. It feels like this song was built specifically for his voice (and maybe it was). It's one of the most committed deliveries of the decade, building from something almost conversational in the verses to something that feels like it could fill a sky by the end. It earns every inch of the crescendo.

The production, handled by Bob Clearmountain, is a masterclass in knowing exactly when to hold back and when to open up. The guitar work from Charlie Burchill is doing things that still sound fresh — layered, melodic, more interested in texture than in showing off. The keyboards create this vast, shimmering space that the vocals can move through rather than compete with. Vocalist Robin Clark, also known for back-up vocals on Bowie’s Young Americans album, comes in before the second chorus and gives the song an extra, unexpected layer of joy. Everything is in service of that feeling of joy and the feeling is enormous. It’s a song about resilience, about choosing to keep going and it sounds like that exactly. It's not triumphant in a cheap way, but hard-won and real.

That’s the thing that gets lost when this song doesn’t get its due. The emotional argument it’s making is genuinely sophisticated. It’s not a victory lap. It’s not a pump-up anthem you put on before a big game. It’s something quieter and more enduring. It’s the sound of someone deciding, in the face of everything, to stay alive and keep moving. That’s a more difficult thing to write than a hook, and Simple Minds pulled it off.

The reason it gets overlooked comes down to one of the cruelest tricks the music industry plays on artists: being associated with something bigger than yourself. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” wasn’t even a Simple Minds song in the traditional sense — it was written by Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff and handed to the band. Jim Kerr has spoken in interviews about initial reluctance to record it. They did it, it became a cultural monument and now every conversation about Simple Minds has to start there. “Alive and Kicking,” written by the band themselves, at the height of their creative powers, only gets to come second.

There’s also the era problem. 1985 was the peak of a very specific kind of polished, grand-scale rock production, and that sound has been unfairly dismissed ever since. The critical consensus on 80s pop shifted hard in the 90s, and a lot of genuinely great music got caught in the backwash — written off as overproduced, too bombastic, too concerned with sounding big. “Alive and Kicking” is all of those things. It’s also breathtaking, if you’re willing to meet it where it is. The wall of sound isn’t hiding anything. It’s expressing something. There’s a difference.

Go back now and try to hear it fresh. Find “Alive and Kicking” and let the opening build do its thing. Let the first chorus arrive. Notice how the band sounds like they earnestly mean every single note. That quality — presence, full commitment, no holding back — is what separates the songs that last from the songs that just survive. This one lasts. It always has. Most people just haven’t been listening closely enough.

Alive and Kicking is a perfect 80s pop song. Simple Minds deserve to be remembered for more than a borrowed anthem. “Alive and Kicking” is the place to start. It always was.

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Are you a longtime believer or did this just send you back to your music app? Either way, we want to know where you land. If you’ve got an 80s deep cut that deserves this treatment, drop it in the comments or join our community.

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