True Faith (song)

"True Faith" is a song by New Order, co-written and co-produced by the band and Stephen Hague. It was the first New Order single since their debut "Ceremony" to be issued in the UK as two separate 12" singles. The second 12" single features two remixes of "True Faith" by Shep Pettibone. Both versions of the 12" (and also the edited 7") include the song "1963". "True Faith" is one of New Order's most popular songs.

"True Faith"
Single by New Order
from the album Substance 1987
B-side"1963"
Released20 July 1987[1]
Genre
Length4:12 (7") (video edit)
5:53 (12")
LabelFactory – FAC 183
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
New Order singles chronology
"Bizarre Love Triangle"
(1986)		 "True Faith"
(1987)		 "Touched by the Hand of God"
(1987)
"True Faith-94"
Single by New Order
from the album The Best of New Order
Released7 November 1994
Recorded1987
Length
  • 4:30 (US version)
  • 5:35 (General release version)
LabelLondon
Producer(s)
New Order singles chronology
"Spooky"
(1993)		 "True Faith-94"
(1994)		 "1963"
(1995)

The single peaked at No. 4 in the United Kingdom on its original release in 1987. In the United States, "True Faith" became New Order's first single to chart in the Hot 100, ultimately peaking at No. 32.

A "True Faith" remix 12" single and CD single were released in 1994, and another "True Faith" remix 12" single and CD single were released in 2001. The 1994 remix charted in the UK at No. 9.

Original releases

New Order wrote and recorded "True Faith" and "1963" during a 10-day studio session with producer Stephen Hague. The two songs were written as new material for New Order's first singles compilation album, Substance 1987. After the two songs were recorded, the band's US management decided that "True Faith" was the stronger track and would be released as the new single, with "1963" as the B-side ("1963" was remixed and issued as a single in its own right in 1994).

"That wasn't really a happy period in New Order's life," recalled Peter Hook. "Let's just say it was a bit of a battle for me to get on there at all, apart from in the sense of helping write the song. Musically, we were moving more towards straight dance and I was keen on keeping the New Order I'd known and loved. I eventually managed to get my bass on the original version. But, of course, the first thing any remixers do is take off my bass and put their own on. I sometimes feel like attaching a note saying, How about keeping the bass?"[4]

While never appearing on an original album, it was included on most of the band's "best of" collections (Substance 1987, The Best of New Order, Retro, International, Singles and Total). The first public performance of the song took place at the 1987 Glastonbury Festival; this version appears on the group's BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert album.

The original 7" version of the song did not appear on any album until 2011's Total: From Joy Division to New Order.

Composition

The song is composed in the key of D minor with an outro in G major.[5]

As is the case for many New Order songs of this period, the words in the title do not appear anywhere in the lyrics.

The original lyrics included a verse that read "Now that we've grown up together/They're all taking drugs with me". Hague convinced Sumner to change the latter line to "They're afraid of what they see" because he was worried that otherwise it would not get played on the radio. When performing the song live, the band have usually used the original line.

During a live performance in 1993 in Reading, Sumner replaced the first lines of the second verse with the lyrics "When I was a very small boy, Michael Jackson played with me. Now that we've grown up together, he's playing with my willy."[6] This was a topical reference to the allegations of sexual abuse against the singer.

Technical details

"True Faith" was recorded at Advision Studio One, with production by New Order and Stephen Hague and was engineered by David Jacob. According to Hague, the studio featured "...a first generation SSL board and big old UREI Time Align monitors. "True Faith" was created using a wide range of electronic musical equipment. According to an interview in Sound on Sound by Richard Buskin, Hague notes that New Order provided a Yamaha QX 1, an Octave Voyetra 8 polyphonic synthesizer, a Yamaha DX 5 and an Akai S900 sampler, while he provided an E-mu Emulator II and an E-mu SP12.[7]

Critical reception

In 2013, Stereogum ranked "True Faith" number four on their list of the 10 greatest New Order songs,[8] and in 2021, The Guardian ranked the song number one on their list of the 30 greatest New Order songs.[9]

Music video

The release of "True Faith" was accompanied by a surreal music video directed and choreographed by Philippe Decouflé and produced by Michael H. Shamberg.[10][11][12]

The opening sequence, showing two men slapping each other, is a reference to Marina Abramović and Ulay's video performance Light/Dark, shot in 1977.[13] Costumed dancers then leap about, fight and slap each other in time to the music, while a person in dark green makeup emerges from an upside-down boxer's speed bag and hand signs the lyrics (in LSF). Other parts of the video were inspired by Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer's Triadisches Ballett.[10]

The video has often been voted amongst the best music videos of its year. Sky Television's channel The Amp, for instance, has it rated as the best video of 1987, Smash Hits magazine's readers rated it as the 3rd best video of 1987[14] and it won the British Video of the Year in 1988.

The overall tonality, themes and various elements from the video re-occurred in Decouflé's scenography and choreography for the inauguration ceremonies of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.

The video was slightly modified for the 1994 re-release, featuring black-and-white clips of females inserted into the later parts of the video.

Personnel

Credits sourced from Sound On Sound.[7]

New Order

Additional Musicians

Track listing

1987 release

All tracks are written by Gillian Gilbert, Stephen Hague, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner

7" single: Factory FAC 183[1]
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith (edit)"4:10
2."1963"5:35
12" maxi: Factory FAC 183[1]
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith"5:53
2."1963"5:55
12" maxi: Factory Fac 183R[1]
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith (remix)"8:59
2."1963"5:32
3."True Faith (True Dub)"10:41
12" maxi: Factory Fac 183R (Warner) (Australia)[1]
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith (remix)"8:59
2."Paradise (remix)"6:40
3."True Faith (True Dub)"10:41

True Faith-94 release

All tracks are written by Gillian Gilbert, Stephen Hague, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner

7": NUO5 / Cassette: NUOMC 5 (UK & Europe)
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith-94 (Radio Edit)"4:28
2."True Faith-94 (Perfecto Radio Edit)" (Remixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne)4:05
12": NUOX 5 (UK & Europe)
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith-94 (Perfecto Mix)" (Remixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne)6:23
2."True Faith-94 (Sexy Disco Dub)" (Remixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne)5:49
3."True Faith-94 (TWA Grim Up North Mix)" (Remixed by TWA - P. Fryer, P. Dillon and N. Raphael)6:11
4."True Faith-94 (The 94 Remix)"5:34
CD: NUOCD 5 (UK & Europe)
No.TitleLength
1."True Faith-94 (Radio Edit)"4:28
2."True Faith-94 (Perfecto Radio Edit)" (Remixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne)4:05
3."True Faith-94 (Perfecto Mix)" (Remixed by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne)6:23
4."True Faith-94 (12" Version)"5:34
5."True Faith-94 (TWA Grim Up North Mix)" (Remixed by TWA - P. Fryer, P. Dillon and N. Raphael)6:11

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[38] Gold 400,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Cover versions

George Michael version
"True Faith"
Single by George Michael
B-side"True Faith" (instrumental)
Released2011
Length4:18
Label
Songwriter(s)
  • Gillian Gilbert
  • Stephen Hague
  • Peter Hook
  • Stephen Morris
  • Bernard Sumner
Producer(s)George Michael
George Michael singles chronology
"December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas)"
(2009)		 "True Faith"
(2011)		 "White Light"
(2012)

English singer George Michael covered "True Faith" in 2011 in support of the charity fund Comic Relief. Throughout the song, Michael's vocals are electronically masked using a vocoder, which garnered mixed reactions. In response, he joked: "People like to make exceptions for me."[39] Peaking at no. 27 on the UK Singles Chart, the song made its television debut on BBC, as one of five music videos recorded for Red Nose Day 2011.

Chart (2011) Peak
position
Denmark (Tracklisten)[40] 38
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[41] 38
UK Singles (OCC)[42] 27

Lotte Kestner / The Last of Us Part II version

The trailer for the 2020 action-adventure video game The Last of Us Part II featured the character Ellie performing an acoustic rendition of the song, which bore a striking resemblance to a 2011 cover by Lotte Kestner.[43] When Kestner revealed that she had not been credited for her cover of the song being featured, the game's director Neil Druckmann apologized and blamed it on an oversight.[43] The game's publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment looked into the matter, and Kestner was subsequently credited on promotional materials.[43] The television adaptation of The Last of Us would eventually feature Kestner's version in the end credits to the episode "Please Hold to My Hand".

The song is featured prominently in a scene at the beginning of the 2000 satirical horror film rendition of American Psycho, in which the main character Patrick Bateman (portrayed by Christian Bale) is attending a nightclub and converses with a bartender.[44]

References
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  2. Grigsby. "Ladytron – The Witching Hour". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  3. Payne, Andre (17 November 2015). "New Order, tour review: Brilliance of a brand new order". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  4. Q. May 2001. {{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. "True Faith by New Order – Digital Sheet Music". Musicnotes.com. 11 April 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  6. New Order True Faith Reading 1993. YouTube. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  7. Buskin, Richard (March 2005). "Classic Tracks: New Order 'True Faith'". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  8. Lariviere, Aaron (25 January 2013). "The 10 Best New Order Songs". Stereogum. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  9. Petridis, Alexis (7 January 2021). "New Order's 30 greatest tracks – ranked!". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  10. Jordan, Stephanie; Allen, Dave (1993). "Dance & music video". Parallel lines: media representations of dance. Arts Council series. Indiana University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-86196-371-3.
  11. Kaltenbach, Chris (15 November 2014). "Remembrance: Michael Shamberg, from Baltimore to New Order and beyond". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  12. Bourne, Dianne (4 November 2014). "New Order pay tribute to video producer Michael H. Shamberg". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  13. "Marina Abramović and Ulay Light/ Dark". YouTube. 1977. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  14. "The 8th Annual Smash Hits Readers' Poll > Best Video". Smash Hits. London, UK. 16–29 December 1987. p. 40. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  15. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. p. 215. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  16. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 0919." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  17. "European Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 4, no. 37. 19 September 1987. p. 17. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  18. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – True Faith". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
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  23. "Indie Hits "N"". Cherry Red Records. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
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  28. "End of Year Charts 1987". Recorded Music New Zealand. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  29. "Gallup Year End Charts 1987: Singles". Record Mirror. 23 January 1988. p. 36.
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  31. "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles". ARIA. 29 January 1995. Retrieved 9 December 2016 – via Imgur.
  32. "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 11, no. 48. 26 November 1994. p. 15. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  33. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – True Faith '94". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  34. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  35. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  36. "Official Dance Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  37. "The RM Club Chart" (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). 5 November 1994. p. 8. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  38. "British single certifications – New Order – True Faith". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  39. "True Faith (New Order cover) – LIVE – George Michael – Prague, August 22nd 2011". YouTube. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  40. "George Michael – True Faith". Tracklisten. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  41. "George Michael – True Faith" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  42. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  43. Carpenter, Nicole (10 June 2020). "The Last of Us Part 2 dev apologizes for uncredited Ellie song". Polygon. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  44. Farber, Jim (21 April 2016). "Agony and Ecstasy in the Music of 'American Psycho'". Observer. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
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