"Vienna" | ||||
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Single by Ultravox | ||||
from the album Vienna | ||||
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Released | 9 January 1981 | |||
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Recorded | February 1980 at RAK Studios (London) | |||
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Label | Chrysalis | |||
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Ultravox singles chronology | ||||
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"Vienna" | ||||
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CD single #1
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Single by Ultravox | ||||
from the album If I Was: The Very Best of Midge Ure & Ultravox | ||||
B-side |
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Released | January 1993 | |||
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Recorded | February 1980 at RAK Studios | |||
Length | 4:37 | |||
Label | Chrysalis | |||
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Ultravox singles chronology | ||||
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"Vienna 92" | ||||
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Single by Ultravox | ||||
B-side | "Systems of Love" | |||
Released | April 1992 | |||
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Recorded | Berwick Street Studios, London | |||
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Label | ZYX | |||
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Ultravox singles chronology | ||||
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"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."