“Physical”
by Nine Inch Nails (originally by Adam and the Ants)
from the album Broken
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

I still clearly remember buying Broken when it first came out. My friend Keegan and I went to our favorite indie record store in Littleton the day it came out to pick it up. This was when CDs were still coming in the ridiculously wasteful double-length cardboard sleeves (Broken may have been one of the sleeves I opened up and hung on my wall). I remember opening it in the car and having the little mini CD fall out, which we thought was so cool, and there was the additional (in our minds) coolness factor later when it became known that the mini CD was a limited item. A few years back when I sold all my CDs, that was one of the few that I had hesitations about getting rid of.

Included on that mini CD was this (and “Suck”, which is also great). I always knew this was an Adam and the Ants cover (I’m pretty sure because it said so on the liner notes), but until just now I had never heard the original. I didn’t realize how much NIN stayed true to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Q_aHDV-vw&feature=kp