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Vienna (Ultravox song)

"Vienna"
Ultravox-Vienna single.png
Single by Ultravox
from the album Vienna
B-side
  • "Passionate Reply"
  • "Herr X" (12" single only)
Released 9 January 1981 (1981-01-09)
Format
Recorded February 1980 at RAK Studios (London)
Length
  • 4:37 (single edit)
  • 4:53 (album and 12" version)
Label Chrysalis
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
Ultravox singles chronology
"Passing Strangers"
(1980)
"Vienna"
(1981)
"Slow Motion"
(reissue)
(1981)
"Vienna"
Ultravox Vienna 1993 single cover.jpg
CD single #1
Single by Ultravox
from the album If I Was: The Very Best of Midge Ure & Ultravox
B-side
Released January 1993 (1993-01)
Format
Recorded February 1980 at RAK Studios
Length 4:37
Label Chrysalis
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
Ultravox singles chronology
"Vienna 92"
(1992)
"Vienna"
(reissue)
(1993)
"I Am Alive"
(1993)
"Vienna 92"
Ultravox Vienna 92 single cover.jpg
Single by Ultravox
B-side "Systems of Love"
Released April 1992
Format
Recorded Berwick Street Studios, London
Genre
Length
  • 4:35 (The classic mix)
  • 7:31 (Goodnight Vienna remix)
Label ZYX
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
  • Ultravox
  • Rod Gammons
Ultravox singles chronology
"All in One Day"
(1987)
"Vienna 92"
(1992)
"Vienna"
(reissue)
(1993)

"Vienna" is a new wave/art rock song by British band Ultravox. It was released as the third single from the band's fourth studio album of the same name. The single was released on Chrysalis Records on 9 January 1981, and is notable for spending four consecutive weeks at number two in the UK Singles Chart without ever getting to number-one. "Vienna" was kept off the UK number-one slot by John Lennon's "Woman" for a week, and then by Joe Dolce's novelty hit, "Shaddap You Face", for a further three weeks, although "Vienna" did sell more copies than either of these records and ranked as the fifth best-selling UK single for 1981. The single was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry in February 1981, for UK sales exceeding 500,000 copies. Nevertheless, the single peaked at number one on the Top 40 charts in many European areas including the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland.

It also won "Single of the Year" at the 1981 Brit Awards. To date, it remains Ultravox's signature song, being their most commercially successful release and is often played live by Midge Ure in solo performances.

It was voted Britain's favourite single to ever peak at number two in the charts in a 2012 poll run by BBC Radio 2 and the Official Charts Company. It was awarded an honorary number one by the OCC.

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."


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Wikipedia

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