Jamelia – Personal Jesus

Associated artists/bands: Jamelia

2-track single CD. Although the sticker on this rare promo mentions that ” ‘Beware Of The Dog’ is based on a sample of the Depeche Mode classic ‘Personal Jesus’ ” the remixes on this CD do not contain this sample either. Australian 5-track single CD. By the way: the video version ends with the lyrics “You’d better reach out and touch me” :-). Nice way of finally getting all different mixes of this song from one source. Only the extended remix contains the samples from “Personal Jesus”, the others don’t. Only the extended remix on disc 2 contains the samples from “Personal Jesus”, but at least this double 12″ promo comes in cool pink and yellow fluorescent vinyl. Disc 2 is single sided only. The DVD single comes in Super Jewel Box. The mixes on this 12″ do NOT contain the sample from “Personal Jesus”, so you don’t need to collect it, although it comes in nice red and heavy vinyl :-) The promo-only instrumental version sounds like an instrumental remix(!) of “Personal Jesus”, very cool! This is not really a cover version, the lyrics are completely by Jamelia. But the song is using the guitars of “Personal Jesus” throughout the whole song (see also the scan of the credits for this song).

Michael M. Müller

Although I already owned all regular releases, I started "seriously" collecting Depeche Mode's releases from all over the world in the late 80s. But when the internet and espacially eBay came up, I wanted to specialise my collection, because with eBay it was not a question of "how to find a rarity?" anymore, but just a question of "who pays the most?". That was the start of my collection of Depeche Mode cover versions.

I really like it when artists create a completely new mood in a cover version. For me, the best covers are very often just unknown tracks on an artist's album, while many tribute compilations are just "sound-a-likes" without own creativity.