Originally Posted by
Barney Rubble
I'm guessing this will go over the heads of a lot of posters here Fred - Ure a funny fella!
"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[2] and features Midge Ure singing the lead vocal.
The song is regarded as a staple of the synth-pop genre that was popularised in the early 1980s. The song 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
"Vienna" was written in January 1980.[3] 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.[4] 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.[3]
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.[3] 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.[4] Ure is said to have been influenced by the Walker Brothers' 1978 single "The Electrician".[5]
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."[6]
Release and chart performance
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.[7] It was kept off the top spot by John Lennon's "Woman" for a week[8] and then by Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face" for a further three weeks.[9][10][11] "Vienna" is ranked as the UK's sixth best-selling single of 1981.[12] 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.[2]
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.[13]
The single topped the charts in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands.[3]
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."[14]
Music video
The grave of Carl Schweighofer in 2009
The music video, directed by Russell Mulcahy,[15] is particularly evocative of The Third Man. It was Ultravox's second video, after "Passing Strangers" (also with Mulcahy), and cost £6000–£7000, footed by the band after Chrysalis refused to fund it.[16]
It may come as a surprise to know that approximately half of it was shot on locations in central London, mainly at Covent Garden and also in the old Kilburn Gaumont Theatre in North London (later a Bingo hall, now an Evangelical church since 2007). The embassy party scene was in some house we'd rented in town. Can't remember where, but I do remember that it took the crew a long time to set up the lights to prepare for filming. So long that we all got impatient with waiting and dipped into the many cases of wine we'd laid on for refreshment after the shoot. By the time the crew was ready to film, we were all well partying for real.
The other half was in Vienna. We did it on the cheap. There was just us and Nick, our trusty camera man. We took an early morning flight to Vienna, ran round like loonies in and out of taxis as we filmed, and soon discovered that, due to it being the winter off-season, many of the splendid places we'd been counting upon filming were either shut for redecorating or covered with webs of scaffolding. "What do you mean it's 'closed for repairs'?!" We finished up in the cemetery for the shots with the statue which had been used for the single's cover (a gentleman who made pianos for the rich and famous of his time, I believe), did the sunset shot, and then dashed back to London to start editing.
— Warren Cann, Explaining the location details to Jonas Wårstad[17]
The gravestone that is shown in the video and on the single cover is part of the grave of the Austrian piano manufacturer Carl Schweighofer, and is located in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.
B-sides
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.
Reissue
"Vienna"
CD single #1
Single by Ultravox
from the album If I Was: The Very Best of Midge Ure & Ultravox
B-side
"Wastelands""The Voice""One Small Day""Hymn""Answers to Nothing""Call of the Wild"
Released January 1993
Recorded February 1980 at RAK Studios
Length 4:37
Label Chrysalis
Songwriter(s)
Warren CannChris CrossBilly CurrieMidge Ure
Producer(s)
UltravoxConny Plank
Ultravox singles chronology
"Vienna 92"
(1992) "Vienna"
(1993) "I Am Alive"
(1993)
In 1993 "Vienna" was re-released by Chrysalis, to promote the Midge Ure/Ultravox greatest hits compilation If I Was: The Very Best of Midge Ure & Ultravox. This reissue peaked at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart.[20] Like the compilation album, the single also included songs by Midge Ure (as B-sides).
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