Interesting facts and trivia from the music world!
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Chris De Burgh started writing this song about his wife Diane, after an argument, however he was having a hard time finishing it as he couldnt come up with a title for the song.
Five months later he saw Diane, wearing red, across a crowded nightclub, which gave him the idea for the title. On the British TV series This Is Your Life, de Burgh said that the song was inspired by the memory of when he first saw Diane, and how men so often cannot even remember what their wives were wearing when they first met.
On his website, he said that the song was not specifically about Diane, but about appreciating the most important people in our lives, who we often take for granted; how we often fail to notice what attracted us to another person in the first place. In this account, he was already married to Diane but didn't realize it was her when he spotted her across the room!
The real life love story of this song took a hit in the mid-'90s when de Burgh revealed that he had an affair with the 19 year old nanny he employed while his wife was recovering from a horseback riding accident. After some public contrition, with de Burgh saying "I don't want to gamble with my marriage and my family," he and Diane remained together.
"Lady In Red" was a huge worldwide hit, going to No1 in 25 different countries. In the UK, it became a huge part of the cultural landscape, with listeners divided over whether it was the sweetest love song ever written or a pile of treacly musical mush. De Burgh was never able to duplicate the success of this song, but he developed a loyal following in Europe, where there was modest but lasting demand for his music. In America, his only other trip to the Top-40 was with his 1982 song "Don't Pay The Ferryman."
Mark Riordan
Contributer
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