“We opened with it and the crowd broke through the barrier. We had to stop midway because people were getting hurt”: The game-changing late 80s single that put an obscure band from San Francisco on the map and helped ignite the alt rock explosion

Faith No More posing for a photograph in 1990.

Just before the 80s ended in an explosion of Aqua Net and spandex, Faith No More found themselves at a crossroads. While the San Francisco-based band had already released the albums We Care A Lot (1985) and Introduce Yourself (1987), relations between singer Chuck Mosley and the rest of the band – Roddy Bottum (keyboards), Jim Martin (guitar), Billy Gould (bass) and Mike Bordin (drums) – had soured, resulting in the vocalist being ousted.

“We were in a weird place at the time,” Bottum recalls, “having just lost a singer. I think I felt it more than the others. I was pretty close to Chuck. We were taking stock and starting over, but the mood among the four of us was pretty optimistic.”