Grace Jones: Slave To The Rhythm
“Slave to the Rhythm” is the title track, and one of eight variations of the same song off of Grace Jones’ concept album, Slave To The Rhythm. It was written by Downtown Music Publishing’s own Trevor Horn, who also co-produced the album with Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow and Stephen Lipson.
“Slave to the Rhythm” peaked at #12 on the UK Singles chart in 1985 and topped the American Dance chart in February of 1986. Slave to the Rhythm was released in 1985, and was a concept album that featured several radical interpretations of the title track and interviews with Jones as well as actor Ian McShane reciting passages from Jean-Paul Goude’s biography Jungle Fever.
In the liner notes of the box set celebrating the 25th anniversary of ZTT Records, journalist Paul Morley says “Slave to The Rhythm” was assembled and produced by Horn after “Two Tribes” and was originally intended for Frankie Goes To Hollywood as a follow-up to their single “Relax”. Horn worked endlessly on it, and in the end he decided that it belonged with Jones.