Investigating DM's "Speak & Spell" album USA release

[Fred Taghon]

As with Erasure's "Wonderland", once again, there seems to be inaccurate and misleading information out there—including DM's official website—regarding the USA release date of the "Speak & Spell" album. I think the DM discography is, overall, pretty darn accurate, but I HAVE spotted a few absolute errors with USA release information on the site.

The DM site claims "Speak & Spell" was released in the UK on October 5, 1981, and in the USA on October 6, 1981. This seemed REALLY unusual to me, especially since albums by UK artists typically arrived in the USA weeks or months later—especially FIRST albums by up-and-coming artists. After my experience researching the Erasure USA release date, this time I started my investigation by checking the Sire 1987 CD insert for "Speak & Spell". Sure enough, the short biography there claimed the album was released in the USA in November, 1981. Since the Sire 1987 CD insert for "Wonderland" turned out to be accurate with the USA release date, I assumed this "November, 1981" statement in the "Speak & Spell" insert was likely also accurate; but I wanted to see if I could confirm it, especially since DM's own website said otherwise.

Another deep dive into Billboard and Cash Box articles from 1981 proved very interesting and informative, and helped paint a broader picture of what was transpiring at the time. Depeche Mode was quickly becoming a hot new commodity in the UK by the Fall of 1981, and word was spreading across the pond. Their "Dreaming Of Me", "New Life" and "Just Can't Get Enough" singles were all hits in USA dance clubs—as imports—because they had not yet been signed by a US record label.

The first sign that something changed was when I noticed on the December 5, 1981 Billboard Disco Top 80 chart, there was a switch from the "UK Import" tag for "Just Can't Get Enough", to "Sire SRK 3642 c/o Warner Bros. (LP)". As the chart was actually compiled and submitted to editors a week in advance of actual publication dates, that means the "Speak & Spell" album was at least available on Sire in the USA in late November. But was it available as early as the first week of October, as so many websites claim???

Further searching uncovered a few short articles regarding Sire records finally signing Depeche Mode for North America. The earliest is a one-sentence snippet in the October 31 issue of Cash Box (page 36): "Sire has signed British dance music act Depeche Mode for America." Even considering the one-week delay from writing the article to actual publication, this already discounts the October 6 USA release date cited on DM's site.

A much more detailed article titled "A New Mode Of Merch." appeared one week later, in the November 7, 1981 issue of Cash Box (page 17). It says: "Warner Bros. will be trying a new approach to competing against import copies of new releases. Since LPs by European artists are frequently released overseas several weeks in advance of their American release, U.S. sales are frequently cut into. Warner is presently looking at a release date of Jan. 1 [1982] in the U.S. for Sire recording artists Depeche Mode. The LP will be released in Europe on Nov. 11. As a stop-gap, Warner will issue 15,000 copies of the LP here on Nov. 11, with the regular run scheduled to hit in January. Stay tuned."

This November 7 article now even places the UK release date of October 5 into question by claiming the LP will be "released in Europe on Nov. 11". Or was the article referring to the release of the album in West Germany and other European territories? Either way, it confirms "Speak & Spell" was planned for release in the USA—in limited quantities—on November 11, 1981 AT THE EARLIEST, with a full-on USA release planned for January.

A November 21, 1981 article (page 6) in Billboard seems to support this: "British band Depeche Mode to Sire Records with debut album, "Speak & Spell," to be released in the U.S. and Canada in January, 1982". The November 11th limited release had presumedly already happened by the time this article was published.

So the USA release date for "Speak & Spell" was technically November 11, 1981; with broader nationwide release in January, 1982. So, the 1987 Sire CD insert is proven correct once again!

But I'm still unsure about the October 5 UK release date. The album debuted at #10 on Music & Video Week's Top 100 Albums chart on November 14, 1981. Seems unlikely it would have taken the album over 40 days to finally appear on the UK albums chart, especially since they had already recently established themselves with 3 chart singles, including their first Top 10!

I have seen a few other sites claim the UK release date was October 29, 1981. This date is at least feasible. Mute may have abandoned the original November 11 release date when they learned of Sire/Warner's plans to do a limited release to curtail import sales cutting into domestic USA sales. This date also fits in well with "Speak & Spells" first UK albums chart appearance on November 14. That chart would have actually been compiled by November 7, giving "Speak & Spell" a full week of sales before its chart debut.

The November 11 limited USA release date is supported by the fact that "Speak & Speak" debuted at #198 on Billboard's Top 200 LPs & Tape chart for December 26, 1981. And the broader USA/Canada rollout scheduled for January, 1982 is also supported by the album finally being reviewed in the January 23, 1982 (page 92) issue. Billboard's reviews policy at the time was to only review commercially available releases. So they may not have reviewed "Speak & Spell" until it had full nationwide distribution.

[Rissan]

Interesting story. Great digging.

[Fred Taghon]

Lol thanks, I'm glad someone out there finds my obsession with this release date stuff interesting! I consider the first Depeche Mode and Erasure albums to be so important, not only to the bands' legacies, but also to the broader historic record of electronic popular music. Plus, it's fascinating to read these bits and pieces, from different sources, of what was really going on at the time. Really easy to go down rabbit holes!

Since my post, I have also been researching the online archive for the UK's Record Mirror magazine. Holy cow, so many of the reviews in that magazine were scathingly brutal to nearly every single and album up for review lol. I got a laugh out of the review for "Love In Itself" — which focused on everything BUT the music — and ended with a cheap shot at Dave Gahan's "new double chin"! The BEST part, was the additional comment from the Editor: "What's he ever done to you?" which was especially appropriate since the critic had started the review by mentioning how nice the guys in Depeche Mode are!

Anyway, back to "Speak & Spell" release dates!

The album was reviewed in the November 7, 1981 issue of Record Mirror (page 18). I researched all of Record Mirror's DM reviews from "Dreaming Of Me" through "A Question Of lust" so far, and the dominating trend is that each record was reviewed within 5-8 days of their release dates. So, it is beginning to appear more likely that "Speak & Spell" was released in the UK very late in October, 1981. The releases also show a pattern of Mondays and Fridays as the preferred days-of-the week for new releases at that time. Since the aforementioned potential release date of October 29 would have been on a Thursday, I tend to think the actual release date may have been the following day, Friday, October 30, 1981. With the Record Mirror review being published November 7, it's even possible the release date was as late as Monday, November 2, 1981.

Final findings then:

The USA release date of "Speak & Spell" was November 11, 1981 (limited release of 15,000 copies) with full USA/Canada release in January, 1982.
The UK release date of "Speak & Spell" was likely Friday, October 30 or Monday, November 2, 1981, but almost certainly no earlier than October 29.

No clue where the "October 5th" date originated from; after all this research, that date simply does not fit into the puzzle in any way, shape or form.

[PKPN]

Thanks for this research.

I'm pretty sure the Nov. 11th "Europe" release mentioned in Cash Box was indeed referring to continental Europe. Based on other release date research I've done over the years, it seems it was common back then for licensed editions of indie-label releases to lag behind the original UK issues by up to a month.

The Oct. 5th date for the UK release has somehow spread far and wide, I assume merely due to the momentum that such "facts" tend to have on the Internet. Anyone relying on the official discography should consider that the entire discography/archives section of depechemode.com was once a separate, unofficial website consisting entirely of info contributed by fans; it's not like the band or the record companies ever scrutinized it for what they would consider trivial errors.

There is also the possibility that the LP was planned for an earlier release but ended up delayed a few weeks, after announcements of various sorts had already been printed, advertising the earlier date.

[Fred Taghon]

Your comment about the continental Europe release dates does ring true, and I imagine it was likely the case with "Speak & Spell" as well.

I did not realize the origin history behind the DM site discography! I suppose that makes sense. Let the fans do the research and just use what they've come up with, faults and all. I am happy to report that the bulk of what I've corroborated with the site's discography during my research has proven to be largely accurate.

I tend to use publication reviews (Billboard, Cash Box, Record Mirror) as pretty reliable evidence of a narrow window of time when a new single or album was released; particularly in cases where no exact date can be found anywhere. For Depeche Mode in particular, I have mostly been able to go off UK release dates provided on the DM discography, coupled with announcements in Record Mirror magazine of exact release dates, which usually came in the issue 1 week ahead of the issue that would then publish a review of the new release. Then, almost like clockwork, the following issue of Record Mirror would show the new release debuting on the UK charts.

More often than not, then, there was only a 12-day period from when a new DM record was released, to when it debuted on the charts.

U.S. releases with unknown release dates are a little more vague, and that 12-day window is far less reliable. But when Billboard reviewed a new single or album, that new release would, more often than not, debut in the charts within the next 2 weeks. Unless, of course, it was something that had a real slow start and took a while to make an impression at radio. The most common time-frame I've seen for new U.S releases in the 1980's and 1990's is 11-18 days from the date of release to debuting in the U.S. charts. Somewhere in that 18-day period would usually be the magazine's publication of a review.

You are so right, also, about labels simply changing release dates. I have tended to overlook that reality. Billboard used to have a section in the first issue of every month where they published expected release dates for new albums by artists who went Gold or Platinum with their last release. It's wild to focus on these monthly "articles" and see how many upcoming releases would be carried over from previous months!