"Stand
and Deliver" was Adam and the Ants' most successful single. It entered the
UK Top 40 at Number One and stayed there for five weeks. It was featured on
their Prince Charming album. The lyric "stand and deliver - your money or
your life" was a phrase commonly used by highwaymen in 18th century
The song's
video features Adam Ant dressed as a "dandy highwayman" who is
captured and escapes being hanged from the gallows with help from his
accomplices (his band members). The video's opening sequence of Adam Ant
putting on his makeup before going out on a robbery became a defining visual
image for Adam Ant in the years that followed. The video also has an early
appearance by Amanda Donohoe who at the time was Adam's girlfriend.
Adam &
The Ants: Stand And Deliver lyrics
Stand and
deliver!
I'm the
dandy highwayman who you're too scared to mention
I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing
your attention
The devil take your stereo and your record
collection! (oh-oh)
The way you look you'll qualify for next
year's old age pension!
Stand and
deliver your money or your life!
Try to use a mirror not a bullet or a knife!
I'm the
dandy highwayman so sick of easy fashion
The clumsy boots, peek-a-boo roots that people
think so dashing
So what's the point of robbery when nothing is
worth taking? (oh oh)
It's kind of tough to tell a scruff the big
mistake he's making
Stand and
deliver your money or your life!
Try to use a mirror not a bullet or a knife!
And even
though you fool your soul
Your conscience will be mine
All mine
We're the
dandy highwaymen so tired of excuses
Of deep meaning philosophies where only
showbiz loses
We're the dandy highwaymen and here's our
invitation (oh oh)
"Throw your safety overboard and join our
insect nation"
Stand and
deliver your money or your life!
Try to use a mirror not a bullet or a knife!
And even
though you fool your soul
Your conscience will be mine
All mine
Qua qua da
diddley qua qua da diddley
Qua qua da diddley qua qua da diddley
Stand and
deliver your money or your life!
Stand and deliver your money or your life!
(repeat til end)
Prince Charming
was a UK number one single for four weeks in September 1981 for Adam and the
Ants, featured on the album of the same name. Written by Marco Pirroni and Adam
Ant, it was their second number one single.
The video was
notable for its extravagant production. It featured a swashbuckling Adam Ant,
in flamboyant Regency clothes, performing a much imitated arm-crossing dance.
The video also featured Diana Dors in one of her last on-screen performances.
Adam Ant (born
Stuart Leslie Goddard, 3 November 1954, Marylebone, London) is an English
musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group
Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits
between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s. Ant was also a star in America
where he not only scored a string of hit singles and albums, but was once voted
sexiest man in America by the viewers of MTV. He is also an actor, having
appeared in over two dozen films or television episodes between 1985 and 2003.
Since 2010, Ant
has undertaken a major reactivation of his musical career, performing live
regularly in his hometown London and beyond, recording a new album and with two
full-length UK national tours, a US national tour and a short Australian tour
all now completed and a third such UK
tour now scheduled. His present comeback continues and thrives despite concerns
about such activities being merely another symptom of the mental health issues
which were in considerable part responsible for his lengthy spell of
near-inactivity spanning the late 1990s and 2000s
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