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Scrolling through the hundreds of contenders for my Deep Cuts Of The 80s I kept coming across versions of songs that had originally been released as 12 inch singles. Now, most of you know the history of the 12 inch and how a practical solution for seventies dancefloor DJ’s evolved into the ultimate high fidelity format of the age, but what you may not know is that the proliferation of 12 inch single’s in the eighties was more a case of simple economics. The sad fact is that while there was very little profit to be made on a traditional 7 inch single, the 12 inch yielded significantly more because the manufacturing and distribution costs were comparable whereas the retail price was double!
Like every other independent label in the eighties, my own permanently cash strapped Criminal Damage Records ignored the smaller format too in favour of generating at least some much needed income. Sure, the deeper grooves of a 12 inch produced a richer, bass intensive and spatialized sound but that really only benefited music designed specifically for the dancefloor and those independent labels able to afford the more expensive studios and name producers. They were definitely wasted on the likes of our own noisy and defiantly lo-fi Membranes and Them Howlin’ Horrors!
Thinking back, the first 12 inch I bought would have been Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’ in 1977 followed later in the year by XTC’s 3D EP, one of the first punk related singles I remember being released exclusively on the bigger format. After that, I didn’t pay much attention until the early eighties when 12 inch singles offering longer, reconstructed versions of songs began to appear in greater quantities. When done well they easily surpassed the original 7 inch versions, but they soon became more like an unnecessary evil than an artistic statement in their own right. Just because a song could be extended and reworked didn’t mean it had to!
The first time I heard a 12 inch single that sounded like the definitive article rather than just another boring botch job was Soft Cell’s eight minute extravaganza ‘Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go’. And that got me thinking about the proliferation of 12 inch singles in the eighties and early nineties and pulling together some of my favourites. So, with a self-imposed restriction of one song per artist to avoid being overrun by New Order and/or the Pet Shop Boys, here’s a dozen you may or may not know that I think you’ll enjoy.
Chris Green
October 2026
1. SOFT CELL ‘Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go?’ (12” Single July 1981)
It’s impossible now to understand the hatred the pioneering electronica of the early eighties received from the trad rock luddites. Accused of being cold, machine made music, the first synth-pop record to openly challenge such nonsense was Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’. Like everyone else, I knew nothing of Gloria Jones 1965 original, so it was the 12 inch versions seamless segue into The Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’, a song I’d known since the early seventies, that in my head transformed it into something remarkable and so obviously human.
2. NEW ORDER ‘Temptation’ (12” Single May 1982)
The first single New Order produced themselves, due to their inexperience they failed to realise that it was standard practice to edit a single master recording into different lengths for differing formats. Instead they recorded two separate takes for the 7 and 12 inch release of ‘Temptation’. Significantly different to each other, the longer version may have lacked the polished drive of the shorter recording, but running slightly faster at 127 BPM and with a funkier, far more dramatic instrumental breakdown, it did provide what would turn out to be an essential blueprint for eighties club culture.
3. THE THE ‘Uncertain Smile’ (12” Single October 1982)
The The were one of those groups who seemed to sneak up on me until I suddenly realised I owned everything they’d ever done. Unlike most of the records here, ‘Uncertain Smile’ had nothing to do with the dancefloor even though the ten minute 12 inch was clearly the version to buy, Matt Johnson’s tale of turmoil and loss creating an uneasy tension with the sprawling arrangement that makes it hard to believe it was recorded in 1982 and not 2022.
4. THE ART OF NOISE ‘Moments In Love’ (Into Battle With The Art Of Noise EP December 1983)
During a period when the Sisters Of Mercy’s ‘Temple Of Love’/’Heartland’/’Gimme Sheter’ 12 inch was rarely off my turntable, Into Battle With The Art Of Noise was so ground breaking and futuristic it forced me to question what I was listening to. The first release on Trevor Horn and Paul Morley’s ZTT label, whether it was a 12 inch single, an EP or a mini LP scarcely seemed to matter. What did matter was that in amongst the nine tracks of everyday found sounds, processed percussion and state of the art samples was the mighty ‘Beat Box’ and the ten minute, thought provoking soundscape ‘Moments In Love’.
5. ANNE CLARK ‘Our Darkness’ [Remix] (12” Single November 1984)
A young poet from Bromley, Anne Clark became an active participant in punk when she began to appear at the open mic nights hosted by Richard Strange’s Club Futura. And yet, it wasn’t until she befriended Psychic TV affiliate David Harrow and explored her interest in electronica that her recording career really began to take off. In 1984 ‘Our Darkness’ accurately reflected the anxieties and fears of Britain’s lost and troubled youth, but it was Harrow’s electro disco, proto house production that elevated it into the distinctive, creative art form it would end up epitomising.
6. BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE ‘E=MC2’ [Extended Mix] (12” Single March 1986)
Mick Jones post Clash work with Big Audio Dynamite may have been forgotten but in 1986 he was as forward thinking as it was possible for any ex-punk rocknrolla to be. Even now, the extended mix of ‘E=MC2’ still possesses enough chutzpah to send a chill down my spine, Jones adventurous brew of film dialogue, hip hop beats, dub bass and punk rock guitar somehow converted into an infectious, danceable, pop treat.
7. COLDCUT ‘Say Kids What Time Is It’ (12” White Label January 1987)
Sampler based DJ records were the precursor to UK rave and as luck would have it I got to hear most of them early on due to my association with Karl Bonnie aka The Jackal and sonic mastermind of Renegade Soundwave. By playing around with the pause button on a regular cassette player to create their own breakbeat driven collages, Matt Black and Jonathan More’s ‘Say Kids What Time Is It’ was the first of its kind and in many ways sounded the death knell for traditional musicianship and those who had been bleating about the likes of Soft Cell just six years before. OK, so it was a little clunky in places, but its playful, revolutionary nature, joyful abuse of copyright and Coldcut’s own punky attitude would change the way music was made literally forever.
8. PET SHOP BOYS ‘Always On My Mind’ [Extended Dance Version] (12” Single November 1987)
In September 1987 the Pet Shop Boys performed ‘Always on My Mind’ on an ITV special to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Elvis’s death. A triumphant, electro-pop masterclass in reconstruction that had no real reason to exist other than to delight people, the extended dance mix went even further by adding an extra four minutes of dancefloor dynamics and sweeping synth lines to Neil Tennant's emotionally detached yet strangely sincere vocals.
9. NENEH CHERRY ‘Buffalo Stance’ [Arthur Baker’s 1/2 Way 2 House Mix] (12” Single June 1989)
A teenager I’d seen performing with The Slits and Rip, Rig & Panic in the early eighties, Neneh Cherry’s singular ‘Buffalo Stance’ went far beyond the borders of hip hop and Madonna, two of her more obvious influences. Ripe for remixing, legendary producer Arthur Baker took the original somewhere I wasn’t expecting by pushing it into a slinky, downtempo, house groove that anchored it firmly in club culture while simultaneously increasing its sassy pop sensibility.
10. SAINT ETIENNE ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ [Andrew Weatherall’s A Mix Of Two Halves] (12” Single July 1990)
Where would we be without Boys Own remixer around town Andrew Weatherall and his remarkable 12 inch creations for everyone from Primal Scream to My Bloody Valentine. Even so, his bold rebuild of Saint Etienne’s ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ was something else entirely. Relying on little more than a rumbling bass and some muffled dialogue for the first half, he cut the track in two with a brief speech about a DJ and his spliff before kicking it into action via some booming dub that was as close to the influential reggae producer King Tubby as he would ever get.
11. PRIMAL SCREAM ‘Come Together’ [Terry Farley Extended Mix] (12” Single August 1990)
Bobby Gillespie looked like a greasy seventies throwback, danced like a twat, sang like my sulky seven year old and was a sad sack no hoper until Andrew Weatherall saved his sorry soul by turning one of Primal Screams shameless Stones rip offs into ‘Loaded’. Nonetheless, there’s still an argument to be had that despite the Windsor chippies magnificent canon of work, it’s the mixes by his fellow Boys Own collaborator Terry Farley that have actually stood the test of time better, ‘Come Together’ with it’s effortless, gospel-inflected rock’n’roll and languid melody being just one of them.
12. MASSIVE ATTACK ‘Safe From Harm’ [Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix] (12” Single May 1991)
The last of my holy trinity of indie producers, Paul Oakenfold already had quite a bit of studio experience behind him when he teamed up with Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley for the first time on a couple of club mixes for the Happy Mondays. And yet, it was on the extended house dynamics of ‘Safe From Harm’ that he really came into his own by reinforcing the slow, heavy duty foundations of the original and injecting a pulsing, four to the floor momentum that to his eternal credit captured the melting pot of Bristol trip-hop and early nineties remix culture perfectly.