"Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a timeless track, so it makes sense that Joy Division needed three different recording sessions to get it just right.
The group laid down an early version of the song on Jan. 8, 1980 at Pennine Studios in Oldham, a suburb northeast of Manchester, Rhino Entertainment reported. The band originally hailed from Salford, another bedroom community west of the city.
Frontman Ian Curtis and producer Martin Hannett didn't like this version and decided to re-record the final iteration two months later.
The track was first put to tape in November 1979, when Joy Division played it for radio personality John Peel at BBC Studios in London. This performance came just one month after the band released its debut single "Transmission."
The second version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was recorded two months later with producer Martin Hannett. He and Curtis weren't happy with this version of the track, so in March 1980 the band gave it another shot at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, another Manchester suburb.
The Pennine version had a distinct dissonance that was eliminated from the final version of the track. The other notable difference is the volume of the guitars. They sound meek on the second take but introduce the song with gusto on the final version.
Curtis tried to model his vocals after Frank Sinatra on this version of the track, Classic Rock reported. This came at the behest of Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, who gifted the singer several Sinatra albums.
Hannett ended up remixing "Love Will Tear Us Apart" at least four times at different studios.
"Martin sensed it was a song that was going to last forever and wanted to make it really special," Joy Division's bassist Peter Hook told Classic Rock.
This re-recorded version of the song quickly rocketed to the No. 13 spot on the U.K. singles chart. It also made it to the No.1 spot on the nation's independent singles chart and the singles chart in New Zealand.
Bassist Peter Hook said Hannett remixed the track at least four times because he sensed it would be a classic.
But by then Joy Division was already a thing of the past. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was released in June 1980, just weeks after Curtis killed himself.
His widow Deborah Woodruff had the track's title engraved on Curtis' headstone at a cemetery in Macclesfield, where the singer grew up. The lyrics were partly about the pair's troubled relationship, but also touched on Curtis' epilepsy diagnosis and distaste for his day job as a civil servant.
The song's title was meant to be a response to Captain and Tennille's 1975 version of "Love Will Keep Us Together," which was also recorded at Strawberry Studios.
The other musicians in Joy Division formed New Order following Curtis' suicide in 1980.
Joy Division's final album Closer made it to the No. 6 spot on the U.K. albums chart when it was released in July 1980. The band's surviving members went on to form the new wave act New Order.
The band and Factory Records continued to be an important part of the Manchester region's music scene into the 1980s. The label and some members created the Haçienda, a nightclub which helped launch the eclectic Madchester movement later that decade.
