The title song here hit #14 on the pop charts in 1962 and was followed by ?Surfin? USA,? which mapped out Wilson's vision: to combine Chuck Berry's rock & roll guitar with the intricate vocal harmonies of the Four Freshman. 

 Original mastermind Vince Clarke departed after just one album, Speak and Spell, which included the immortal hits "Dreaming of Me," "New Life," and "Just Can't Get Enough." Clarke went on to found Yaz and Erasure. 

 Of all the group's compilations, the sentimental fave is still the early Catching Up With Depeche Mode. 

 The Depechies scored a big U.S. crossover hit in the summer of 1985 with "People Are People," despite the fact that other Brit synth boys were going down like lambs to the slaughter. The band still wasn't getting any respect, but it packed arenas. 

 Music for the Masses amps up the kinky/morbid fun for "I Want You Now," "Little 15," and "Pleasure Little Treasure," which apparently inspired the hook of Sonic Youth's "Teen Age Riot." 

 The best recent Depeche is the Freelance Hellraiser's 2002 bootleg mash-up of "Just Can't Get Enough" and D-12's "Purple Pills"; Eminem sounds right at home over that perky synth beat, rapping, "Oh shit, now I started a mosh pit!"