Goo Goo Dolls have released “Postcards From Paradise” as the first single from their forthcoming covers collection Borrowed, offering a fresh presentation of a track that has long held a quiet place in the band’s catalog. Available now via Warner Records, the single arrives ahead of the album’s exclusive Record Store Day Black Friday vinyl release on November 27.
Postcards from Paradise
Listen to Postcards from Paradise on Spotify. Song · The Goo Goo Dolls · 2026
Originally written and recorded by the British alternative rock band Flesh for Lulu for their 1987 album Long Live the New Flesh, the song carries a mid-’80s alternative edge rooted in themes of romantic fixation and emotional disorientation. Its imagery centers on the pull of an idealized connection—described through “postcards from paradise” delivered by ordinary means—while the narrator grapples with the inability to move forward without that person, likening the feeling to a car stalled in the rain. Goo Goo Dolls first recorded their version as a rare bonus track during sessions for the 2010 album Something for the Rest of Us, where it remained relatively obscure outside of deluxe editions.
The new single positions the cover within a broader project that gathers 14 reinterpretations of songs by artists including Prince, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, and INXS. Borrowed is being issued as a limited vinyl pressing on Pawnshop Patina-colored vinyl with new artwork, available exclusively in participating independent record stores on Black Friday. Physical CD pre-orders open the same day as the single’s release, with the CD and full streaming versions following on December 4. The tracklist places “Postcards From Paradise” on Side One alongside covers such as INXS’s “Don’t Change,” The Plimsouls’ “Million Miles Away,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “I Don’t Want to Know.” Side Two includes a collaboration with Buffalo performer Lance Diamond on Prince’s “Never Take the Place of Your Man,” a live take on Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” and Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit.”
For a band whose catalog spans decades of radio staples, the choice of this particular cover underscores an ongoing interest in material that shaped their early influences. Flesh for Lulu’s original sits comfortably alongside the alternative and post-punk currents that informed Goo Goo Dolls’ formative years in Buffalo, and the band’s prior recording of the song during the Something for the Rest of Us era suggests it has remained a point of connection rather than a one-off experiment. The decision to lead with it now gives the track wider visibility as part of a larger statement about the songs the group has drawn from over time.
The release coincides with additional activity from the band. Goo Goo Dolls will join Def Leppard and The Struts on a 45-date North American arena tour running from March 2 through July 2, 2027, with tickets on sale beginning October 16. A portion of each ticket sale is designated for City of Hope. The group has also scheduled a pair of hometown benefit shows at Buffalo’s Town Ballroom on November 20 and 21 in support of FeedMore WNY, with all proceeds directed to the organization.
“Postcards From Paradise” functions less as a radical reinvention than as a considered reintroduction. By foregrounding a previously peripheral cover at the start of Borrowed, Goo Goo Dolls offer listeners an accessible entry point into a collection that maps some of the guitar-driven music that has informed their own songwriting. The staggered physical and digital rollout further extends the project beyond the vinyl exclusivity of Record Store Day, ensuring the full set of interpretations reaches both collectors and streaming audiences in the weeks that follow.
