The band formed in Basildon, Essex in England. Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke were school friends who formed a band called No Romance In China in 1977 and then in 1980 another one called Composition of Sound. At that stage they were playing guitars. It was soon after this that Clarke heard an early OMD record and decided he wanted to make electronic music. They were joined by Martin Gore and then Dave Gahan. They took their name from a French Fashion magazine thinking Depeche Mode meant ‘fast fashion’ although the proper translation is more akin to ‘fashion news’. An early version of their song ‘Photographic’ appeared on a compilation album by Some Bizarre records along with early material by OMD, Soft Cell and The The. Soon after this they signed to Mute records. Their first single, ‘Dreaming Of Me’ made it to 57 on the UK charts and the follow, ‘New Life’ got to number 11. However, after releasing their first album, ‘Speak And Spell’, Vince Clarke left the band to form Yazoo with Alison Moyet and would later go on to form Erasure. The remaining 3 members recorded their second album, ‘A Broken Frame’. After this they recruited Alan Wilder to replace Vince Clarke. They have (at the time of writing) seen 51 UK charting hits with 3 of them peaking at 4, their best peak (‘People Are People’, ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ and ‘Precious’). They have managed 7 US Hot 100 hits with ‘Enjoy The Silence’s peak of 8 being their best effort so far.
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 27-May-1983 | Get The Balance Right | 14 | 13 |
| 11-Nov-1983 | Everything Counts | 20 | 7 |
| 29-Jun-1984 | People Are People | 23 | 5 |
| 16-Nov-1986 | A Question Of Time | 26 | 7 |
| 02-Jul-1987 | Strangelove | 2 | 23 |
| 22-Oct-1987 | Never Let Me Down Again | 15 | 7 |
| Total hits | 6 | ||
| Total weeks | 62 |
| Biggest climber awards | 2 |
| Star rater climbs | 9 |
| Biggest fallers | 3 |
| Weeks with oldest in the charts | 0 |
| Longest run in the charts (weeks) | 23 |
| Weeks with more than 1 in the charts | 7 |
| Biggest gap between hits (weeks) | 119 |
| Top 30 points ranking | 188 |
| Top 20 points ranking | =305 |
| Top 30 points | 747 |
| Top 20 points | 264 |
Vince Clarke was not a member of Depeche Mode when they had their SA hits, so no Yazoo or Erasure stats are included here.
SA Singles Charts 