‘It’s like building a beautiful piece of furniture that will last and last and last’
The hit single rocketed to number one in the charts in 25 countries upon its release in June 1986 with more than eight million copies sold and 600 million streams on Spotify alone.
Henry McKean sat down with de Burgh for a one-on-one tell-all interview as part of his The Rewind series on Newstalk – airing on Monday at 12pm – in which he shared the background to the song’s composition.
“We just moved to Dalkey. So I bought this apartment [in Ballsbridge], and I used to go there and work most days,” he said from inside a busy Finnegan’s Pub in Dalkey.
Chris de Burgh with Newstalk’s Henry McKean. Photo: Henry McKean
“One day, I thought ‘I’ve got to write a bit of a quiet song here just to give a bit of balance to the album’ back in the good old days of vinyl where you could do five tracks or six tracks on the side and build it like a little mini concert.”
Confessing that the hit represented a departure from his self-proclaimed “rocker” identity, de Burgh said the idea for the single came from a “curious” line that sporadically popped into his head.
“I was doodling around, and I got this line ‘I’ve never seen you looking’, whatever it was.”
He continued: “A movie began to start in my head. I saw this couple going out for the evening and the man is downstairs yelling upstairs to his wife who’s doing her makeup – he’s jangling his keys saying ‘Come on, we’re going to be late for the party’.”
After the imaginary couple are dragged in different directions at the party when they arrive, de Burgh said the husband utters the words: “My God, that’s my wife” after he spots her in her red dress while being widely admired by others in attendance.
He added that the song is entirely from the husband’s perspective, incorporating the sentiment if “I’m sorry, I’ve been working too hard. I haven’t paid you the attention you deserve.”
“I once said to somebody it took me 25 minutes and six months to write The Lady In Red because the polishing, the getting right. Songwriting is a lot more difficult than it seems.
“It’s like building a beautiful piece of furniture that will last and last and last,” he said, adding: “A lot of music is about tension and release. It’s also getting the right word in the right place.”
He also shared advice for aspiring songwriters who want to make impactful music – keep it simple.
“Have a listen to the songs that are successful and figure out why. The simpler they are, the more memorable they are,” he said.
“With Lady In Red, if I disassemble the song, I can tell you why it was a hit, but I couldn’t repeat it.
De Burgh was also friends with the late Princess Diana who he revealed was a massive fan of The Lady In Red.
“We corresponded quite a lot. She came to a couple of my shows.”
Founder of Virgin, Richard Branson, even asked de Burgh to perform the song to Diana.
“One time I was asked by Richard Branson to launch a new transatlantic fleet by sitting at a piano, which had been elevated in front of the cockpit area.”
He added: And at a certain moment, this thing emerged of me singing for her. She was thrilled.”
You can hear the full interview on The Rewind on Monday at midday on Newstalk.