This New Wave classic has the very memorable hook line, "I might like you better if we slept together." The lusty but very poetic song makes the point that we often end up between the sheets with a person we'd least expect, so never say never.
Romeo Void was fronted by Debora Iyall, who wrote the lyric. She formed the band when she was a student at the San Francisco Art Institute along with four guys, including bass player Frank Zincavage, whom the song is about. Iyall didn't tell Zincavage the song was about him until 2000, when she was about to have major surgery.
"I was going into surgery and was told to have my affairs in order, just in case," she explained. "I was motivated to do it also in that I'd only told one other person about it, (a mutual friend) and didn't want Frank to find out from him if I did pass and it ever came up."
Zincavage's reaction after Iyall decided to let him in on the secret: "He was surprised, but not totally surprised."
The song first appeared on a 1981 EP, also called Never Say Never, in 1981. It was released on the San Francisco new wave/punk label 415 Records, which had signed Romeo Void. This version runs 6:05 and was produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars along with his engineer, Ian Taylor. Ocasek took the gig because he was impressed with the group's first album, It's A Condition, released earlier in 1981.
415 Records sold the band's contract to Columbia, which re-released the song as a single and made it the first track of their second album, Benefactor, in 1982. This version was cut down to 3:26, chopping out many of Debora Iyall's lyrics. Romeo Void didn't get on well at Columbia, and the label dropped them in 1984 while they were in the middle of a tour for their next album, Instincts. The group split up the next year; they reunited for one-off projects from time to time but didn't make any new music. They were the subject of the VH1 show Bands Reunited in 2004, but it didn't take.
The music video, directed by Richard Casey, is inspired by the 1960 French film
Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, with Romeo Void acting out their own film noir. The video opens with a minute of character development before the band starts playing the song, and then shots alternate between their performance and their acting. There's a long death scene in the film that the band's drummer, Larry Carter, re-creates at the end. It was shot in San Francisco at their rehearsal space, their apartments, and at a local café.
"I loved that it caught us enjoying each other and the filming process so much,"
Debora Iyall told Songfacts. "Even though I was a gun moll on the bed with a gun in my garter, I remember wanting to be more covered up in the band shot at the warehouse. The natural light was terrific. I chose to put on a white cotton blouse under the black 1940s dress with shoulder pads. Performing was always fun for me, catching the light right and allowing your gaze to wander from band member to self to camera. It made sense with the lyrics and dynamics of the players."
The band was on tour when MTV went on the air in August 1981 and started playing the "Never Say Never" video. They noticed a difference right away as more people started coming to shows and they were recognized for the first time.
Bands that cover this song often learn it's a lot harder than it sounds. "It has such an odd structure," Romeo Void bass player Frank Zincavage told Songfacts. "Peter's [Peter Woods] guitar is seemingly very simple, but it has a unique quality that is very important to the song. Haven't heard anyone yet match that."
At the end of the music video, we hear the crew clapping and a voice says, "I hope we passed the audition." This is a reference to what John Lennon said during The Beatles' famous
impromptu rooftop concert in 1969.
If you like sax, the early '80s were the time for you. Like many New Wave bands, Romeo Void had a saxophone player - Benjamin Bossi. His horn is all over this track.
"Never Say Never" is Romeo Void's most popular song, but it never made the chart because it took a long time for many listeners to discover it. The band's only chart hit is "
A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing)," which went to #35 in 1984.
Queens Of The Stone Age did a memorable cover of "Never Say Never" in 2000, replacing the saxophone part with a kazoo. Debora Iyall later had an encounter with their frontman, Josh Homme. "Not too long after they released it, I was coming in the back door of a restaurant just as Josh Homme was leaving through the front," she explained in a Songfacts interview. "He's an unmistakable human, so tall and red haired. I rushed over and met him outside. I thanked him for covering our song and invited him to my birthday party. They were busy recording, he said it was unlikely they'd make it. With smiles all around I took the opportunity and asked for a hug. That was nice."
The song was used in these movies:
Len And Company (2015)
The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Reckless (1984)
And in these TV shows:
Gossip Girl ("Lies Wide Shut" - 2021)
Ash vs Evil Dead ("Trapped Inside" - 2016)
It also appears in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
In 1983 the next James Bond movie was released, titled Never Say Never Again. The band saw the film but weren't impressed.
The alt-rock band Garbage have some similar lyrics in their 1998 song "
Sleep Together," where frontwoman Shirley Manson sings
If we sleep together
Will you like me better?Garbage did a lot of borrowing on that album (Version 2.0), including on the song "
Push It," where they doled out writing credits to the composers of Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" and The Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby." Romeo Void never heard from them though.
