Songfacts®:

• This is the follow-up single to Republica's sporting event staple, "Ready To Go." An English band, they packed their techo tracks with dense sets of lyrics delivered by their striking frontwoman, Saffron. In "Drop Dead Gorgeous" she sings about an ex-boyfriend who is a lazy liar, but she can't give him up because he's soooo hot.
  
  Who's it about? In a Songfacts interview with Saffron, she explained: "I had a couple of people in mind, but over the years I've heard from so many people who think it's about them, trying to claim it. I'm like, 'Umm... no.' Someone even told me they should get royalties from it."
  
  "But the song is about boosting someone's confidence, self-esteem," she added. "If something's happened to you, an amazing thing to do is fuel that rage, scream and shout about it. It's cathartic. Get it out there how you really feel. And what's brilliant, it was a hit record, and if that hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't have written the song."
• The song plays about an hour into the 1996 movie Scream in a party scene where the body count climbs higher. Director Wes Craven used the song to hint at the identity of the killer (or killers!). Note the lyrics:
  
  I know my ex-boyfriend lies
  Oh he does it every time
  It's just his permanent disguise
  Yeah yeah but he's drop dead gorgeous
  
  Craven took a lot of care with the soundtrack. Earlier in the film there's a scene where one of these ex-boyfriends is talking to the main character, Sidney (Neve Campbell), and an acoustic version of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" plays in the background.
• Wes Craven made a personal appeal to get "Drop Dead Gorgeous" into Scream. It wasn't an easy sell because Saffron doesn't like horror movies.
  
  "He sent me, and I still have, an original rough cut screener," she told Songfacts. "I'm like, 'Oh my God, Drew Barrymore gets killed! I really love her!' I said yes because it actually is the story: My boyfriend lies, he does it in disguise, he does it every time.
  
  Then we all go to this premiere thing and we had no idea what to expect because it was a horror film and Wes Craven hadn't done anything for a while. But you just don't know what art means to other people. I was outside having a cigarette and was talking to this woman, saying, 'I don't like these films. I bloody hate them but I had to come to be polite and everything.'
  
  I walked back into the premiere and that same woman was on the screen! It was Courteney Cox. I'd never seen any of her films or her show so I didn't know who she was.
  
  We played at the aftershow party and I saw her and was like, 'I'm really, really sorry. I'd didn't know who you were.' She liked that I had no idea who she was. She was lovely and so nice to me. Then Scream suddenly became this huge film."
• The music video was directed by Michael Geoghegan, who also did the hyperkinetic clip for "Ready To Go." In "Drop Dead Gorgeous" she smashes some shiny gnomes with a hammer, dons angel wings, and discharges a fire extinguisher.
• The song first charted in America, reaching #93 in February 1997. It went to #7 in the UK in May, making it Republica's highest-charting single in their homeland. Republica focused on America first, touring there in 1996 to promote "Ready To Go." They built up a following that eagerly anticipated their second album, Speed Ballads, but it was never released in America because their record label, Deconstruction, well, deconstructed. That album was issued in Europe and delivered a UK hit with "From Rush Hour With Love," but the band broke up a few years later. Saffron and two of the original members rebooted the band in 2008 and kept it going for live performances and occasional recording; they put out an EP called Christiana Obey in 2013. Saffron stepped up during the pandemic to work in the mental health industry, caring for patients with a range of issues, including autism and epilepsy. When the pandemic abated, she stayed in the field but kept Republica going, typically with weekend performances.