Coming off the back of the emergent European electronic age, Germany’s Alphaville’s first single struck a chord with people around the world. Apparently influenced by Men Without Hats’ Safety Dance (you can certainly hear the influences)

The Big in Japan of the title was supposed to allude to seeking an out of body drug induced nirvana, a sentiment which totally passed me by at the time of release, I just loved dancing to it.

Reaching number 1 in a large amount of Europe, number 8 in the UK and even topping the US’ Hot Dance Club charts. One remarkable coincidence was that when topping the charts in the band’s native Germany the the track it toppled was Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax, whose lead singer Holly Johnson’s previous band were called Big In Japan (more on them elsewhere)

The video was directed by Yello’s Dieter Meyer.