Simple Minds: ‘I’m embarrassed we dissed The Breakfast Club song’

Simple Minds weren’t initially keen to record classic movie song Don’t You (Forget About Me).
The Scottish band which formed in 1977, achieved commercial success in the 1980s with a string of singles, but remain best known for their 1985 hit Don’t You (Forget About Me) from the soundtrack of the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. It reached No.7 in the U.K. and topped the charts in the U.S. and Canada.
Speaking to The Guardian about the record, frontman Jim Kerr and guitarist/songwriter Charlie Burchill have recalled how they were initially hesitant about the tune at a time when they were keen to crack the U.S.
“Then our record company came to us with an idea. The director John Hughes was making a movie called The Breakfast Club, and they thought it would be a great vehicle for their bands,” Kerr shared. “Being chippy Glaswegians, we said: ‘What? Nah, we write our own songs.'”
But after spending some time with songwriter Keith Forsey they soon changed their minds, after bonding over their shared appreciation for German experimental music.
“At the time, we felt the song didn’t suit us, because we had delusions of being ultra-hip. When I listen to it now, it’s obviously a brilliant, well-crafted pop song. I’m embarrassed we dissed it so much,” Burchill admitted.
An acoustic version of the song is included on the band’s album Simple Minds Acoustic.
“We made a video in a manor house, surrounded by a load of stuff from a junk shop, wearing really bad clothes we’d been given. So you’ve got this movie about US high-school kids, with a song by a band from Glasgow in a manor house in England. It was the thinnest of concepts, but it became huge,” he added.