I was haunted by the nocturnal beauty of the opening scene, which had little to do with the song but set a nice, surreal mood. I wanted to do more, but couldn't find any additional footage to complement it. Out of curiosity, while working on the video, I checked out the lyrics for this Billy Idol song, and managed to find out it was inspired by a horror film made in France in 1960 called Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without A Face). This was straight from Mr. Idol himself from his book autobiographical Dancing With Myself I should mention so all other interpretations can be dismissed. I saw the dubbed English version of the film on Fright Night back in the mid or late 60's a few times and never again.
Anyway, I was working with a few other ideas for my video, but obviously could not ignore the actual source of the song's title and meaning. Thought I would scrap what I was doing and instead do a tribute to the film with the song, only to find out someone beat me to it several years ago. It still needed to be featured in the video I felt, so I managed to incorporate portions of it into a weave with another old Fright Night favorite, Mr. Sardonicus. Could not resist that since the effect of the eyes and masks are pretty close, plus Mr. Sardonicus came out in 1961, around the same time as Les Yeux Sans Visage.
One of Billy Idol's best songs to be sure. Surreal, romantic, and mesmerizing. In America, it peaked at #4 on both Billboard and Cash Box on July 14, 1984 and at #6 in Canada.
What's with the Internet, these days anyway? I practically had to sign my name in blood to get the info on when the song peaked on the US charts.