“Paranoimia” is a song by the English synth-pop group Art of Noise, released in April 1986 from their second studio album, In Visible Silence (1986). The song’s better-known version was a version released as a single, featuring television character Max Headroom on vocals. This version was first included on the 1986 album Re-Works of Art of Noise.
The 7-inch single features a monologue about Max Headroom being scared and unable to sleep (hence “Paranoimia”, a portmanteau of “paranoia” and “insomnia”). The 12-inch has a completely different vocal with Headroom as a master of ceremonies, talking about the music and making a pun-laden introduction of the alleged band members: Peter O’Toole on trumpet (the absence of a trumpet in the song explained by O’Toole, notorious at one time for his drinking, “just having a rest between bars“), tennis player Martina Navratilova on bassline (baseline), Cher on mic (“Are you OK, Mike?”), and the Pope on drums.
