"Never Say Never" is a 1982 song by the new wave band Romeo Void. One of their best-known songs, "Never Say Never" was a favorite on early

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

, featuring a black-and-white

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

that spoofs

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

's '' Breathless''. The song is driven by a throbbing,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched P ...

and punctuated by jagged guitar and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, incorporating

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

influences. The song reached #17 on the Billboard Dance / Disco chart chart on the 27th of March, 1982. Originally released on an EP through

415 Records 415 Records was a San Francisco record label created in 1978. The label focused its efforts on local punk rock and new wave music acts of the late 1970s through the late 1980s, including The Offs, The Nuns, The Units, Romeo Void, and Wire Tra ...

, "Never Say Never" was re-recorded for the band's second album and major label debut, '' Benefactor''. The album version is more radio friendly, cutting the song's length almost in half and removing expletives.

Composition

Musically, the song has been described as

, new wave,

dance-rock Dance-rock is a dance- infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and dis ...

, and disco-punk.

Track listing

Appearances in media

The song was featured in the 1984 film '' Reckless'' starring Aidan Quinn as a football star and renegade. Quinn's character takes over the school dance's DJ booth to play the single, much to the dismay of all his classmates. A dance sequence ensues with Quinn's character moshing about while a somewhat distraught

Daryl Hannah Daryl Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her film debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film ''The Fury (1978 film), The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various films across the ...

tries to figure out how to dance with him. A small segment of the song was featured in a scene of the film '' Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story''. It also was included in the 2013 film '' The Wolf of Wall Street''. In 2016, it was featured in the show '' Ash vs Evil Dead'' during a scene of the season two episode ''Trapped Inside''. The song was also featured in '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.'' It is heard in the game on the radio station Wave 103.

Covers

*In 2000 by

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated as QOTSA or QotSA) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1996. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme shortly before he returned to his native Palm Desert, California. ...

, as a bonus track on the album '' Rated R.'' This cover was also featured on the soundtrack for the film ''The Punisher'' (2004). *In 2009, the band Julien-K covered "Never Say Never" on their debut album '' Death to Analog'', stylizing the song title as "Nvr Say Nvr".

''Never Say Never'' (EP)

''Never Say Never'' is an EP by American new wave band Romeo Void, released in 1981. It was released on CD in 2006 by Wounded Bird Records, as four bonus tracks to their reissue of '' Benefactor''.

Track listing

All tracks by Debora Iyall, Peter Woods, Frank Zincavage, Benjamin Bossi and Larry Carter. # "Never Say Never" – 6:06 # "In the Dark" – 4:33 # "Present Tense" – 5:47 # "Not Safe" – 3:57

Personnel

* Debora Iyall –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

*Peter Woods –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

*Benjamin Bossi –

*Frank Zincavage –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

*Larry Carter –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Chart positions

;Single

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Never Say Never (Song) 1981 songs 1982 singles Romeo Void songs Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Ric Ocasek 1981 debut EPs 415 Records EPs Black-and-white music videos Songs written by Debora Iyall