Mirror in the Bathroom

All five members share the writing credit for "Mirror in the Bathroom", produced by Bob Sargeant. It was released on April 25, 1980 on Go-Feet, 3:10, with "Jackpot" on the B-side, and opens I Just Can't Stop It. It reached 4 in the UK, their highest placing until "Can't Get Used to Losing You" reached 3 in 1983 (one interview says 3, which is likely the album), 7 in Ireland and 22 on the US dance club chart; a 1995 remix reissue reached 44 in 1996. It is certified silver. Wakeling calls Steele's bassline revolutionary, in 2/2 rather than 4/4.

Wakeling said he wrote it on a construction site in a snowy winter, hungover with wet work clothes, talking to himself in the mirror while shaving when he did not want to go to work, and wrote the poem on a motorbike ride back to the site. He describes a cycle of self-involvement, narcissism, isolation and back, a vicious cycle. The latch on the bathroom door gave the idea of the door's locked, just me and you. Songfacts says Best Friend was sung to the same mirror in his sister's bathroom.

NME ranked it third among the tracks of 1980 and Q put it at 517 in its 2003 1001 Best Songs Ever. It is in the films Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and SLC Punk! (1999, in a version by Fifi). The Beat performed it in Dance Craze. A 2012 Record Store Day 7-inch of 750 copies had "Too Nice to Talk To" on the B-side. Setlist.fm lists it 49 times for The Beat featuring Ranking Roger, first of 42 songs. We could not tell which version our upload is.