Personal Jesus

Gore brought the song to the Milan sessions as a very simple demo, tapping the beat with his foot while playing the melody on an acoustic guitar. He said it was inspired by Priscilla Presley's book Elvis and Me, and that it was about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone who gives you hope and care. The stomping sound was made by recording people jumping on road cases. The band chose it as a single before the rest of the album was recorded because, as they put it, it said here is Depeche Mode, but not as you know them. It was the first guitar-forward single they released.

It came out on 29 August 1989. A personal ad in newspapers and magazines asked whether you needed your own Personal Jesus and carried a phone number to hear the song. It reached number 13 in the UK and number 28 on the US Hot 100, and was their first gold single in the US. The video, directed by Anton Corbijn in the Tabernas Desert in Almeria, Spain, dressed the band as cowboys, and MTV censored it. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 368 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs, and John Lydon said he was impressed by the bravery of the subject matter.

Covers

Johnny Cash covered it in 2002 on American IV: The Man Comes Around, after Rick Rubin asked John Frusciante to rework an acoustic version. Cash called it probably the most evangelical song he had recorded, and Gore has named it his favorite cover of a Depeche Mode song. Marilyn Manson, Sammy Hagar and Def Leppard have also recorded it. Live versions appear on Devotional, One Night in Paris, Touring the Angel: Live in Milan, Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09, Live in Berlin and Spirits in the Forest.