Front cover

Back cover

Disc

The Martin Gore remix only appeared on the US pressing of the Spirit Feel album (Wax Trax! Records). But the interesting thing is that the European pressing (One Little Indian Records - TPLP 77 CD), which does not have the Martin Gore remix, had Martin's ex-wife singing on a song titled "Wisdom Of The Ages".

In Europe the Martin Gore remix of Rejoice only appeared on a compilation titled "Welcome To The Future 3".
More, it's on the 13 track vinyl only (One Little Indian - TPLP080), not on the 12 track CD (One Little Indian - TPLP 080 CD).

Label A

February 2005

The story of this song is quite long and unknown. It's generally been credited to Propaganda, by mistake. Actually, there were several versions of the song, and here is the background.

When Claudia Brücken was in the process of writing her second solo album (right before she joined Propaganda for the second time), she started writing the song Cloud 9. She had in her mind something that could only be played on a guitar, and as her guitar skills were limited, she wondered who could help her. As Martin Gore used to live not far from her, she called him. A few days later, she played to him the material that she had already written and she asked him if he could add what was missing in there. Martin was quite unsure in the first place, because he's used to write songs on his own. Though, the following day, he called Claudia back and told her he had completed the song.

In fact, actually Claudia wrote all the lyrics, as well as the chords and melodies for the verses. Martin Gore wrote chords and melodies for the chorus. He plays guitar on it, sings backing vocals on it and also arranged the song.

Then Claudia joined Propaganda and put her solo album on hold. She kind of gave the song to Propaganda to include it on their next album. Michael Mertens and Dietmar "The Brain" Maier did another new version. This one included the backing vocals and the guitar riffs from Martin but it was never completely finished.
Then the song got mixed again by The Brain, in Skyline Studio, Düsseldorf. This third version, produced by Tim simenon, does not include Martin's backing vocals any more, but his guitar riff is still present.
In the end, this album did not see the light of day either!

Therefore Martin never neither worked with Propaganda, nor on Propaganda's version of the song. This song was co-written by Claudia Brücken and Martin Gore.

In 2004 Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys (ex-OMD) formed the band Onetwo and they decided to release a new version of this song on their first CD "Item". Martin's guitar is still present; unfortunately his vocals are gone, but this beautiful song finally sees the light of day!

The full story and the lyrics of the song were provided by Claudia Brücken, and I thank her very much for her kindness.

In an interview from June 2004, Kate Holmes (Client A) says : "As for having Martin Gore singing on the "Overdrive" track, we really wanted to include a male voice on the record as we thought it would complement Sarah's voice and give a different dimension to the songs. It definitely worked with "Overdrive". Martins voice is the gold-dust which turned a good song into a great track".

December 2006

In the summer of 2004 it was known that Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) had entered the final stages of her first solo album and that Martin had provided one of the songs with guitar parts. A working title for this track was "It's A Wonderful Life". At this point, it wasn't sure if this would be the final title, or if the song would make it in the album.

In November 23rd 2004, the album called "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." came out but the song Martin had worked on wasn't included. Gwen Stefani made this statement : "Martin ended up playing guitar on one track but then I didn’t put the song on the record, because I’d written too many songs".

A few months later, in May 2005, we heard that Stefani would release a second solo album but still it wasn't sure whether "Wonderful Life For Him" (new working title) would make the cut or not.

In August 2005, Gwen Stefani announced that her album would be released for Christmas and that "Wonderful Life For Him" would be appear among its tracks. It's especially poignant, as the song was written about the first boy Stefani ever kissed, who has since died. "He was a huge Depeche Mode fan," she says. "He actually turned me onto them. I was really into Madness. I was, like, 'Depeche Mode? That's electronic weirdo music'. My friend would not believe Martin Gore is playing on this song I wrote him."

Nevertheless, at the beginning of December 2005, we hear that the singer changed her mind. "I have a really good record that I could put out," Stefani told. "I had a fantasy about it, but I'm not doing it. I decided it's more important that I take a nap". Stefani explained that she's been going nonstop for years and is feeling "burnt".

On October 24th 2006, another announcement. Gwen Stefani's album has been delayed by her son's birth but the release is now planned for December 5th 2006. The album will be called "The Sweet Escape" and "Wonderful Life For Him" will be included!

On December 5th 2006 "The Sweet Escape" finally sees the light of day, and for our delight, the song on which Martin plays guitar can be found and the final title is "Wonderful Life".

From "Sonic Seducer" - June 2009 :
Olivier Libaux : By that time, Martin was the only one who was not with us in the studio, and only sent us sound files for time reasons. We were in Paris, he was somewhere on this planet in order to finish the latest DM album. Reportedly, he was a big fan of Nouvelle Vague…
Marc Collin : … and he inquired, through his management, how we would like his vocals to be for the song! Martin Gore, one of the most ingenious, contemporary Pop composers, is asking us, how we would like to have his vocals! The feeling was both great as it was strange.
Olivier Libaux : After that we made some proposals, which he liked all!

From "Q Music" - 07 July 2009 :
Again, our new album welcomes some of our "forever great brothers" in music. We sent this version to Martin Gore's management back in spring 2008. We were told that Martin had a great laugh when he heard it! So he agreed in singing some backing vocals on it, and he did that while Depeche Mode was recording their new album! I mean, isn't that a beautiful gift?

In an interview for "Lost In A Supermarket", Douglas McCarthy says :
"We had Martin Gore sing backing vocals on the track “Once You Say” for the new album because we were looking for a ballsy female black gospel singer so Mart came straight to mind. Seriously that’s what we thought".

Martin Gore plays synthesizers on the closing song, "Milakia". The original tapes were recorded more than a decade before the release of this album, after Simenon had produced the band's album "Ultra".
"It's a track I've always loved, but could never find a home for, really" he says.