"Paranoimia" is a song by the English

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

group

Art of Noise Art of Noise (also the Art of Noise) were a British avant-garde synth-rock group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and ...

, released in April 1986 from their second studio album, ''

In Visible Silence ''In Visible Silence'' is the second studio album by the English avant-garde synth-pop group Art of Noise in April 1986, and the first created by members Anne Dudley, J. J. Jeczalik and Gary Langan in the wake of their departure from ZTT Reco ...

'' (1986). A better-known version was released as a single, featuring television character Max Headroom on vocals. This version was first included on the 1986 album ''Re-Works of Art of Noise''. The 7-inch single features a monologue about Max Headroom being scared and unable to sleep (hence "Paranoimia", a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "paranoia" and "insomnia"). The 12-inch has a completely different vocal with Headroom as a master of ceremonies, talking about the music and making a pun-laden introduction of the alleged band members:

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was an English actor known for his leading roles on stage and screen. His numerous accolades include the Academy Honorary Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golde ...

on trumpet (the absence of a trumpet in the song explained by O'Toole, notorious at one time for his drinking, "just having a rest between bars"), tennis player

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...

on bassline ( baseline),

Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...

on mic ("Are you OK, Mike?"), and

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on drums.

Track listing

The 12-inch single was also available on a one-sided cassette tape with the following track listing: # "Paranoimia" (extended version) – 6:40 # "Paranoimia" (7-inch version) – 3:18 # "Why Me?" – 2:56 # "A Nation Rejects" – 2:57 Some later issues of the CD ''In Visible Silence'', most notably the US version, include the single version in place of the original version, which did not include the Max Headroom vocals.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

"Paranoimia '89"

In 1989, a remix by

Ben Liebrand Ben Liebrand (; born 27 September 1960) is a Dutch dance music disc jockey, DJ and remixer. He has record producer, produced for artists such as Forrest (singer), Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Alexander O ...

was released with a new video to promote '' The Best of The Art of Noise''.

References

External links

Paranoimia
at Zang Tuum Tumb Discography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paranoimia 1986 singles 1986 songs Art of Noise songs China Records singles Max Headroom Song recordings produced by Gary Langan Songs written by Anne Dudley