On July 6th, 1987 Echo & The Bunnymen released their 1987 self-titled album, a record which followed 1984’s highly successful Ocean Rain.
The Bunnymen’s fifth studio album, which was several years in the making, was the last to feature the band’s original lineup of Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson, and drummer Pete de Freitas, who would pass away two years later from a motorcycle accident.
Tracks for the 1987 record started to emerge in 1985, during and following The Bunnymen’s headlining appearance at Glastonbury, where the band debuted the album’s tracks “Satellite” and “All in Your Mind”.
Following the festival, the band recruited The Stranglers producer Laurie Latham and recorded “All in Your Mind”, “Like a Rollercoaster” and “Jimmy Brown”, a song which was renamed “Bring on the Dancing Horses”, and included on The Bunnymen’s compilation 1985 album Songs To Learn and Sing.
While the band were supposed to enter the studio in 1985 to record the new album, de Freitas resigned from the group during a period of poor mental health. Since de Freitas was integral to the band’s sound, attempts to find a replacement were unsuccessful, and by late 1986 de Freitas was brought back into the band.
While making the album, the band recorded a version of The Doors’ 1967 single “People Are Strange” for the soundtrack of the 1987 film The Lost Boys. Ray Manzarek, the former keyboard player with the Doors, was brought in to provide keys on the song. While in the studio, he also contributed keys to a re-recording of “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo”, which had previously been the B-side of the 12-inch version of “Bring on the Dancing Horses”.
Echo and The Bunnymen’s self-titled 1987 album had three hit singles:
“The Game”:
“Bedbugs and Ballyhoo”:
and fan favourite “Lips Like Sugar”:
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