DAVID J INTRODUCES HIS FUNNY VALENTINE JUST IN TIME FOR FEB 14
CLEOPATRA RECORDS
Former Bauhaus and Love & Rockets mainstay David J continues his remarkable run of recent singles (“Christmases When You Were Mine,” “Night of the Vampire” and his acclaimed duet with Melanie on her own “Beautiful People”) with a shimmering, fragile take on the immortal “My Funny Valentine.”
Taken from Cleopatra Records’ upcoming Gothic Valentines album, “My Funny Valentine” was first heard in the Rodgers/Hart musical Babes In Arms back in 1937. Since that time, this love song for a less than lovely-looking paramour… “your looks are laughable, unphotographable, yet you’re my favorite work of art”… has been covered by upwards of 600 artists in the years since teenager Mitzi Green first voiced it, from Frank Sinatra and Julie London to Elvis Costello and Nico.
It was also inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2015, in recognition of the song’s “cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy.”
“I’ve always loved this classic song,” says David J, “and thought that a ‘cold wave’ synth version in collaboration with my talented friend, Jon Bernstein, would suit the tone of the album.”
He was correct. It does.
The Gothic Valentines album itself, as the title suggests, is, a seasonally sensitive gathering of exclusive new recordings and much-loved classics by Switchblade Symphony, Iggy Pop, David J, Ministry, Cinderella, Leæther Strip, Soft Cell, and Joy Division – plus, in case you missed it, David J and Melanie’s “Beautiful People,” casting David J as the Lee Hazelwood to Melanie’s Nancy Sinatra.
Elsewhere across the two CDs, goth legends Rosetta Stone, Sex Beat, the Skeletal Family, Christian Death and Gene Loves Jezebel join upcoming favorites Lebanon Hangover, Sonsombre and The KVB in redrafting February 14 in the blackest of hearts and the finest of fishnets.
And don’t forget the eye liner!
Various Artists
Gothic Valentines
(Cleopatra Records)
Release Date: February 7, 2025