"Grimly Fiendish" was a single released by The Damned in 1985.

The band had - much to their surprise - been offered a deal by a major label, MCA

Music Corporation of America

MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...

, and moved further in the direction of goth music under the influence of guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist/keyboardist

Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...

 Roman Jugg

Roman Jugg

Roman Jugg is a keyboard player and guitarist. He began his career in the Welsh punk band Victimize in the late 1970s....

 and vocalist Dave Vanian. Given a substantial promotional budget, including a video directed by Jonathon Gershfield and two separate 12" releases (each featuring a different remix of "Grimly Fiendish") and several limited edition 7" variants, the song was the band's biggest hit since 1979, reaching #21.

MCA

Music Corporation of America

MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...

 also issued the single in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

The song takes its title (although misspelled for copyright reasons) from a character - Grimly Feendish

Grimly Feendish

Grimly Feendish is a villainous character in the British Wham! and Smash! children's comics from the 1960s. He was created by Leo Baxendale. Grimly's first appearance was in Wham! #4...

 - The Rottenest Crook in the World - in the UK children's Wham!, Pow! and Smash! comics from the 1960s, as well as Cor!, Shiver & Shake, Monster Fun and Buster in the 1970s and 80s.

Grimly was an over-ambitious and generally incompetent, child-like criminal mastermind, who was often shown wearing a long, black coat, starting initially as the villainous-foil to Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy. Although popular enough to merit his own strip, the regular restructuring or shelving of his strip due to the comics he appeared in being 'merged' with others meant that he never achieved longevity in any single publication, though he was a staple in many IPC/Fleetway comic annuals right through until the 1980s.

The inspiration behind the song was a throwaway remark by a BBC Radio One DJ one afternoon wondering whether anyone still remembered the character, whilst the lyric is Grimly on trial for being a bad influence on children, Grimly on the other hand protesting that he was never given much of a chance (an allegory to his fate in the comic world).

Track listing

1. "Grimly Fiendish" (Jugg, Scabies, Vanian, Merrick, Doctor) - 3:49
2. "Edward the Bear" (Scabies, Vanian, Jugg, Merrick) - 3:37

Bonus Track on 12" single, version 1: -

1. "Grimly Fiendish (Spic 'n' Span Mix)" (Jugg, Scabies, Vanian, Merrick, Doctor)

Bonus Track on 12" single, version 2: -

1. "Grimly Fiendish (The Bad Trip Mix)" (Jugg, Scabies, Vanian, Merrick, Doctor) - 5:09

Production credits

• Producers:
  • Bob Sargeant
  • The Damned

• Musicians:
  • Dave Vanian: Vocals
  • Roman Jugg
    Roman Jugg
    Roman Jugg is a keyboard player and guitarist. He began his career in the Welsh punk band Victimize in the late 1970s....
    
    : Guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
    
    , vocals on "Edward the Bear"
  • Rat Scabies
    Rat Scabies
    Christopher Millar , better known by his stage name Rat Scabies, is a musician best known for his tenure as the drummer for The Damned....
    
    : Drum
    Drum
    The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
    
    s
  • Bryn Merrick
    Bryn Merrick
    Bryn Merrick is a musician who was a member of Cardiff-based punk band Victimize and who later joined The Damned between 1983 and 1989. He recorded the bass for albums Phantasmagoria and Anything. He replaced Paul Gray in 1983, when Paul went to UFO...
    
    : Bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....