Do You Compute? Explained

Do You Compute?
Cover:Do You Compute.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Donnie Iris
Album:Fortune 410
Released:1983
Recorded:1983
Genre:Rock
Label:MCA
Producer:Mark Avsec
Prev Title:The High and the Mighty
Prev Year:1982
Next Title:Injured in the Game of Love
Next Year:1985

"Do You Compute?" is a song by American rock musician Donnie Iris from his 1983 album Fortune 410. The song was released as a single the same year and reached #64 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and #20 on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

The song was made as a promotional musical advert for the Atari 1200XL computer. The music video for the song prominently features the computer, including Iris typing on it and his band performing inside of it.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Cash Box noted the "novel electronic percussion" opening which "then gives way to a heavy production thick with guitars and keyboards and the singer's heartfelt vocals". They added that "facing a communications barrier, Iris tries to break through in the lyrics".[1] Geoff Barton of Kerrang! called it "a kinda anthemic cross betw[een] Howard Jones' 'What Is Love?', Van Halen's controversial-but-commercial 'Jump' and Rick Springfield's techno-shocker 'Human Touch'" and noted the "sparse, steadily building, ultra-modern sound" which "brings AOR into the Eighties with a vengeance".[2]

Charts

Chart (1983)Peak
Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[3] 64
U.S. Billboard Top Rock Tracks20

References

  1. Reviews: Singles . . June 25, 1983 . 44 . 4 . 9 . 0008-7289.
  2. Barton . Geoff . Singles . . 8 March 1984 . 63 . 37 . 0262-6624.
  3. Book: Whitburn, Joel . Joel Whitburn

    . Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012 . Joel Whitburn . 2013 . Record Research . 410.