Vienna (Ultravox song)
"Vienna" is a song by British new wave band Ultravox from their 1980 fourth studio album of the same name. It was released as the album's third single on 9 January 1981 by Chrysalis Records[3] and features Midge Ure singing the lead vocal.
"Vienna"
- "Passionate Reply"
- "Herr X" (12-inch single only)
9 January 1981
February 1980
RAK, London, UK
- 4:37 (single edit)
- 4:53 (album and 12-inch version)
- Conny Plank
- Ultravox
The song is regarded as a staple of the synth-pop genre that was popularised in the early 1980s. The new wave ballad[1] was also performed at the 1985 Live Aid concert in Wembley Stadium. It remains Ultravox's signature song, being their most commercially successful release and is often performed live by Ure in solo performances.
Background[edit]
"Vienna" was written in January 1980.[4] The song features a dramatic grand piano in the verses and chorus, and a viola solo in the middle of the song. Other sounds include a solid synth bass line played on a MiniMoog, an Elka string synthesiser and a Roland CR-78 drum machine. The drum machine pattern created by Warren Cann was the basis of the song.[5] Then, Cann and the classically trained Billy Currie together wanted to create something that might sound like it had been written by a late-19th-century romantic composer, so they started creating the basic chords and sounds of the song, and the romantic viola solo was influenced by German composer Max Reger.[4]
The lyrics, which are about a brief love affair in the city of Vienna, were quickly written by Midge Ure. According to Currie, Ure was hesitant about the overly classical romantic feel of the orchestration, and said: "This means nothing to me", to which the producer Conny Plank replied: "Well, sing that then." Ure said that he had in his mind only the line "The feeling is gone, this means nothing to me – oh Vienna!" when he went into studio.[4] Then he wrote the vocal part while bass player Chris Cross started playing some bass lines with his synthesizer.
In interviews at the time it was said that the song took its inspiration from the 1949 film The Third Man, which is based around the Austrian capital, but Midge Ure later admitted he made that up when asked what the song was about.[5] Ure is said to have been influenced by the Walker Brothers' 1978 single "The Electrician".[6] According to Ure's autobiography, the title came about by a mishearing of the Fleetwood Mac song "Rhiannon".[7]
Ure said of the track: "We wanted to take the song and make it incredibly pompous in the middle, leaving it very sparse before and after, but finishing with a typically over-the top classical ending."[8]
Release and chart performance[edit]
The song is the title track of the band's album Vienna, released in 1980. Record company Chrysalis Records was reluctant to release the song as a single, as they thought it was too slow and too long to be successful. But the band wanted to release it as a single and it became the album's third single in January 1981.
The single spent four consecutive weeks at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart without ever reaching the top.[9] It was kept off the top spot by John Lennon's "Woman" for a week[10] and then by Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face" for a further three weeks.[11][12][13] "Vienna" is ranked as the UK's sixth best-selling single of 1981.[14] The single was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in February 1981, denoting sales in excess of 500,000 copies in the UK.[3]
It was voted Britain's favourite single ever to peak at No. 2 on the charts in a 2012 poll by BBC Radio 2 and the Official Charts Company (OCC). It was also awarded an honorary No. 1 by the OCC.[15]
The single topped the charts in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands.[4]
In 2017, Ure was offered the chance to meet Dolce, but Ure declined, saying: "I've had 40 years of people talking about Joe 'Bloody' Dolce and I don't want to spend what I've got left talking about when I met him."[16]
B-sides[edit]
The B-side to the single is "Passionate Reply". It was recorded in August 1980 at Criteria Studios in Miami, on their American tour.[18] Cann said to Jonas Wårstad about the track: "The B-side of the 7", 'Passionate Reply' was a promising song, perhaps it needed some 'living with' before we would've considered it finished. As it was, we thought it made a good B-side."[19]
The 12-inch single also features "Herr X", a version of the Kraftwerk-esque album track "Mr. X" sung entirely in German by Warren Cann with the aid of native German producer Conny Plank. Both tracks were included on the remastered CD version of the Vienna album as bonus tracks.
"Vienna"
- "Wastelands"
- "The Voice"
- "One Small Day"
- "Hymn"
- "Answers to Nothing"
- "Call of the Wild"
25 January 1993
February 1980
RAK, London
4:37
- Ultravox
- Conny Plank
"Vienna 92"
"Systems of Love"
24 March 1992
Berwick Street (London)
- 4:35 (The classic mix)
- 7:31 (Goodnight Vienna remix)
- Ultravox
- Rod Gammons
Cover versions[edit]
Vic Reeves[edit]
In 1992, comedian Vic Reeves (Jim Moir) appeared on the album Ruby Trax – The NME's Roaring Forty, singing a version of the song with different lyrics in the verses. The compilation was released by NME, a magazine that had been publishing single charts since 1952, with all records covered having reached the number-one slot in their own charts during 40 years of publication.[38][39][40] As "Vienna" by Ultravox reached number one on the NME charts on 21 February 1981 (staying at the top for one week) it was eligible for inclusion within the concept of the project, where it would not have been allowed if NME had been following the British Market Research Bureau/Gallup chart (now branded as the Official Chart).