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"Lies"
Single by Thompson Twins
from the album Quick Step & Side Kick
B-side	"Beach Culture"
Released	October 8, 1982
Genre	New wave synth-pop
Length	3:08
Label	Arista
Songwriter(s)	Tom Bailey Alannah Currie Joe Leeway
Producer(s)	Alex Sadkin
Thompson Twins singles chronology
"Runaway" (1982) "Lies" (1982) "Love On Your Side" (1983)
Music video
"Lies" by Thompson Twins on YouTube

"Lies" is a song by the British pop band Thompson Twins. It was released as the first single from their third studio album Quick Step & Side Kick (Side Kicks in the US), and the song peaked at number 67 on the UK Singles Chart. The single fared better in the United States, where it peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1983. Along with the B-side track "Beach Culture", "Lies" also spent two weeks at number one on the American dance chart in January 1983, becoming the band's second number one on this chart ("In the Name of Love" had spent five weeks atop this chart in 1982).

Content

Singer Tom Bailey said, "We were just trying to be wacky and a little bit crazy and come up with an idea that we could be irreverent about. The chorus - that kind of catcall chorus, singing, 'lies, lies, lies' - it's the kind of thing you might see in a playground, a school, where someone's calling out like that. But we tried to make it more universal and apply it to bigger issues in the world."

Music video

The music video was directed by Maurice Phillips and received airplay on MTV and other video programs. Three pairs of feet jut from the blankets at the foot end of an oversized bed, bouncing back and forth to the rhythm of the song, as a variety of sights pass in a room similar to Bowman's bedroom in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or a Magritte painting. The end of the video, in which a nurse pulls a privacy screen into place and leans toward the camera with thermometer in hand, establishes that the bed's occupants are patients in a hospital.

Track listing

• 12-inch single (ARIST 12486, ARIST 12 486)

1. "(Bigger & Better) Lies" - 6:35
2. "(Long) Beach Culture" - 6:48

• 7-inch single (ARIST 486)

1. "Lies" - 3:10
2. "Beach Culture" - 3:55

Charts

Cover versions

• In 2005, American pop rock band The Click Five covered the song for their debut studio album, Greetings from Imrie House.

See also

• List of number-one dance singles of 1983 (U.S.)

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 631.
2. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 258.
3. Wiser, Carl (12 August 2014). "Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins : Songwriter Interviews". Songfacts. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
4. "Thompson Twins: Lies (1982)". IMDb. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
5. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
6. "Thompson Twins – Lies". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
7. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
8. "Thompson Twins Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
9. "Thompson Twins Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
10. "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending April 2, 1983". Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Cash Box magazine.
11. Jay S. Jacobs (15 September 2005). "The Click Five Interview". Pop Entertainment. Retrieved 1 January 2025.

External links

• "Lies" at Discogs (list of releases)

• 1982 singles
• 1982 songs
• Arista Records singles
• Thompson Twins songs
• Songs written by Alannah Currie
• Songs written by Tom Bailey (musician)