depeche-mode 39 years ago
electronic music band #Music Madness

Depeche Mode | Shake The Disease (1985)

"Shake the Disease" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released as a single on 29 April 1985. "Shake the Disease" was one of two new songs on the 1985 compilation albums The Singles 81→85 and Catching Up with Depeche Mode, along with the band's subsequent single "It's Called a Heart".

Band member Alan Wilder felt this song captured the essence of the band, saying that "there's a certain edge to what we do that can make people think twice about things. If we've got a choice between calling a song 'Understand Me' or 'Shake the Disease', we'll call it 'Shake the Disease'. There's a lot of perversity and innuendo in our lyrics, but nothing direct."


The music video is the first Depeche Mode video directed by Peter Care, and features an innovative camera trick to make it appear as though the band members are falling. It was shot in the London borough of Hounslow, London. Between May and July 1985 the video was performed on 10 television programs across Europe.

Depeche Mode
1980 - present