The song was written and composed by producer Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff while scoringThe Breakfast Club. Both were Simple Minds fans and wrote the song with the band in mind. Forsey played a demo for the band's label, A&M Records, who invited him to meet the band backstage after one of their "Tour du Monde" shows in the U.S. However, A&M did not notify Simple Minds that Forsey would appear, and the band declined the offer of the song despite Forsey's enthusiasm for them. Forsey next offered "Don't You " to Bryan Ferry, then to Billy Idol, whom Forsey was producing at the time, but both declined. The record company suggested Corey Hart, who had a hit at the time with "Sunglasses at Night", but Forsey did not think Hart would be the right singer for the song. Fixx lead singer Cy Curnin also passed. According to Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr, the band was reluctant to record the song, as they felt they should only record their own material. "We are Simple Minds - we don't do songs that sound like Simple Minds. We are Simple Minds. We do our own songs," he recalled to the BBC in 2018. The band also were frustrated that their attempts to find success in the U.S. market had not succeeded in getting them significant radio airplay, and did not see how recording the song would turn out any better. The band relented after persuasion from A&M and from Chrissie Hynde, Kerr's wife at the time, and after receiving a phone call from Forsey in which he reiterated his admiration for the band. According to one account, the band "rearranged and recorded 'Don't You ' in three hours in the north London studio and promptly forgot about it," believing that it would be a throwaway song on the soundtrack to a forgettable movie. In the process of recording, Simple Minds added such as Kerr's "la lala" vocal fills. They then resumed work on Once Upon a Time, their next album. However, some of the band members had realized they had recorded something with genuine commercial potential.
Music video
The music video, filmed inside Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, was directed by Daniel Kleinman. It takes place in a darkened room with a chandelier, a rocking horse, a jukebox and television sets displaying scenes from The Breakfast Club. The room gets increasingly cluttered with random objects as the video progresses until the last minute. The video was published on YouTube on 3 December 2010; as of November 2019, it had been viewed more than 150 million times.
Release and reception
Continuing the rock direction recently taken on Sparkle in the Rain but also reflecting their melodic synthpop past, the song caught the band at their commercial peak and, propelled by the success of The Breakfast Club, became a #1 hit in the US and Canada. It is also the band's only #1 hit on the US Top Rock Tracks chart, staying atop that chart for three weeks. While only reaching #7 in the UK, it stayed on the charts from 1985 to 1987, one of the longest time spans for any single in the history of the chart. The song did not appear on the band's subsequent album Once Upon a Time, but it did appear on the 1992 best-of Glittering Prize 81/92. It soon became a fixture of the band's live sets – with an extended audience participation section during its inclusion on the 2015 tour to promote the band's Big Music album. Two versions were created for release. A short version, 4:23 in duration, appeared on the single and the original motion picture soundtrack album of The Breakfast Club. A longer version, 6:32 in duration, was released as a 12-inch single. This version contains longer breakdowns and drum fills, a second appearance of the bridge and a longer ending. John Leland from Spin wrote that "'Don't You Forget About Me,' a romantic and melancholy dance track, therefore cuts ice both in the living room and on the dance floor."
