VIA PRESS RELEASE | Roxy Music’s iconic 1975 single “Love Is The Drug” celebrates its 50th anniversary with an exclusive 12” vinyl EP, due 12th December 2025 via Virgin/UMR and available to pre-order now.
This special 50th anniversary edition marks the very first 12” vinyl release of “Love Is The Drug” and features the essential original mix, two of the most sought-after remixes in Greg Wilson’s extended edit, and Todd Terje’s “Disco Dub,” as well as the original 7” B-Side, “Sultanesque.” “Love Is The Drug” is the first single from Siren, Roxy Music’s vital fifth studio album. It shot to #2 in the UK Singles Chart on its release in 1975 and became the band’s highest charting single in North America.
“Love Is The Drug” remains one of the most instantly recognisable songs of the 1970s—a global chart hit that was a key influence on the next generation of bands such as Gang of Four, PiL, Simple Minds, and the Human League, as well as Nile Rodgers of Chic, who acknowledged that its bass riff was a major influence on Chic’s “Good Times.”
“Love Is The Drug” is one of Roxy Music’s top three most-streamed tracks ever. Driven by its seductive bassline and Bryan Ferry’s confident croon, “Love Is The Drug” helped redefine the sound of rock and pop in the mid‑’70s and was heralded by critics as provocative, stylish, proto‑new‑wave gold.
Speaking about “Love Is The Drug,” Greg Wilson said: “It wasn’t until 1976 that the 12″ single appeared as a commercial format, so “Love Is The Drug” was only ever issued as a 7″. In editing this track I imagined how an extended 12″ might have sounded had the record been released a little bit later down the line. It was a massive floorfiller, just as popular in the clubs, if not more so, than the out and out Disco hit “Angel Eyes,” four years on. As well as the more mainstream venues, it was a staple of the numerous Roxy / Bowie nights that sprung up in the latter half of the ’70s, paving the way for the influential Futurist movement.”
Since their inception in 1972, multi-platinum Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Roxy Music have left an indelible mark on the worlds of music, fashion, and art, merging the three with a singular and astonishing vision that brought them immediate, global success. Today they are regarded as one of the most influential bands of all time, whose music and iconic imagery continues to inspire new generations of artists. The band’s 50th anniversary tour took in sold out arenas across North America and the UK, and was widely acclaimed by critics and fans as a triumphant career high.
The 50th anniversary release of “Love Is The Drug” follows Bryan Ferry’s latest album and first new music in over a decade, 2025’s Loose Talk. The collaborative album of music by Bryan Ferry with spoken texts by performance artist, writer and painter Amelia Barratt was met by a wave of critical acclaim, heralded by The Guardian as “a legend’s trip to the avant garde” and “a collage of music, poetry and art” by AnOther Magazine.
Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay also continue to release new music. Their instrumental album, AMPM SOHO LIVE, capturing the ambient instrumental interplay and unique textural sounds for which Manzanera and Mackay are renowned, was released in September to critical acclaim.
