Ongoing History Daily: Depeche Mode and Elvis
True or false: There is a link between the Depeche Mode song “Personal Jesus” and Elvis Presley. True. Martin Gore based the song on something he read by Priscilla Presley. In her autobiography, she described the King as being “her own personal Jesus.” Martin liked the idea of using other people as personal saviors and wrote a song around the concept.
By the way: before the song came out, a special classified ad was placed in papers across the United States. All the ad said was “Your Own Personal Jesus” followed by a phone number. Anyone who called that number didn’t get some sort of a sermon. Instead, they got a sample of the new Depeche Mode single. Back in the days before the internet, a stunt like that was considered to be cutting edge cool.
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