The pre-release single from Ultravox’s “Lament” album was a guitar heavy stomper, which gave me pause, back in the day. I bought the 12″ in the minty fresh, green tinted sleeve, and wondered what the album would offer when it dropped. Would it all be guitar rock? As it turned out, “Lament” was an eclectic mixed bag from my favorite band at the time. The next single was the more typical, Krautrock influenced “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.” The motorik beats were back on this track for almost the last time.
Chrysalis | UK | 7″ | 1984 | UV1
Ultravox: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes UK 7″ [clear vinyl booklet sleeve]
- Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [7″ edit]
- Building
As was not quite the norm back in those days of 1984, I bought the 7″ version, largely due to the packaging perks, which included the mandatory clear vinyl initial pressing. At the time, I did not know that this was the practice for all Chrysalis Ultravox 7″ singles. The band liked it because it looked cool, and the clear vinyl could not be recycled stock, meaning it was virgin and yielded the hottest sound. Chrysalis liked it because it goosed the sales chart wise. Everybody’s happy.
I found out about the clear vinyl pressings for everything when I met Mr. Ware and he regaled me with tales of mail order record buying, which was still in the future for me by a year or two. In 1984, I was limited to what I found in stores. I had bought a copy of “We Came To Dance” on clear vinyl, but typically, I eschewed 7″ singles, preferring their extended 12″ relatives for the Record Cell.
The sleeve also had a booklet of four pages of stills from the set of the video as directed by Midge Ure + Chris Cross. The A-side was a typical 7″ edit shaving off about 30 seconds from the LP track and a [by this time in their career] rare vocal B-side; the sombre piano ballad “Building.”
Chrysalis | UK | 12″ | 1984 | UVX1
Ultravox: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes UK 12″ [gatefold + poster]
- Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [special re-mix]
- Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [7″ edit]
- Building
At the same time as I bought the 7″ on clear vinyl, I also bought the UK 12″ which also had enhanced packaging. The sleeve was a rare 12″ gatefold plus poster included inside. It said a lot regarding Chrysalis’ confidence in the track that they’d package it like “Dark Side Of the Moon,” which was hardly the norm for 12″ singles. It paid off though. The single was Ultravox’s top seller after “Vienna” with the track reaching the #3 position.
This was the 24″ x 24″ poster
The 12″ replicated the contents of the 7″ on its B-side, but the A-side was an extremely long for its time 10 minute remix by the band themselves. Quite frankly, it felt a little over extended. A 4:39 album track of that time could reasonably expect to surface in a 12″ mix lasting between six and seven minutes. Maybe Ultravox felt the hot breath of Frankie Goes To Hollywood breathing down their necks, so they worked the action from the length angle. I would judge that they had failed in this regard. Unfortunately, this did not stop the band from making a 12 minute remix of “Heart Of The Country” exclusively for the German market later! Too bad they didn’t ask me first.
Chrysalis | US | 12″ | 1984 | 4V9 42783
Ultravox: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes US 12″
- Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [extended]
- One Small Day [club version]
As an Ultravox fan in The States, it always seemed like they never lifted a finger to promote the band here. Until this single, I never saw a commercial single issued for the band; only promo 12″ers. This time, US Chrysalis must have been feeling the love since they commissioned exclusive US remixes for the first two A-sides from “Lament” from Steve Thompson for the A-side, and François Kevorkian + John Potoker! Naturally, these remixes by steely-eyed, flat-bellied professional mixers had a bit more vigor than the band’s own mixes of these titles.
The A-side benefitted much by topping out at a more healthy 7:45 and Thompson packed more dynamics into that shorter time to boot. The B-side was a 7:48 remix of “One Small Day” that remains my second favorite mix of this, the most remixed Ultravox song. I bought this as soon as it was released since I sensed that it would be new American mixes, and wasn’t disappointed. Due to the nature of the beast, these two remixes remain the only Ultravox tracks never re-issued on CD ever, probably due to those pesky licensing issues.
Chrysalis | US | 7″ | 1984 | VS4 42781
Ultravox: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes US 7″
- Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [7″ edit]
- Building
I bought the first three records in the initial time of their release. Imagine my shock years later when I chanced upon this delightful US 7″ with a cover design closely based on a promo poster that US Chrysalis produced for in-store display with an appealing black and purple motif using the same portrait of the band. I just found out today that there is allegedly a commercial 12″ with this variant cover!
Chrysalis | GER | 7″ | 1984 | 106 449
Ultravox: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes GER 7″
- Dancing With Tears In My Eyes [7″ edit]
- Building
Finally, I ran across this German variant sleeve in a mail order catalog somewhere. The more sophisticated Europeans opted for a still evoking the video on gray rather than the busy grid favored by Peter Saville. Again, there is a German 12″ with this sleeve, but not in my Record Cell. I think I am done collecting Chrysalis Ultravox vinyl, but there are still Island-era rarities that I have all of the time [if not money] in the world for.
– 30 –
Post-Punk Monk 
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, Man Of Two Worlds and A Friend Called Desire are the last great Ultravox songs to these ears. Lament was certainly a patchy affair. The follow up U-Vox (subtitled ‘U shouldn’t have’ to these ears) would have more in common with Laments more pedestrian tracks like One Small Day and White China. Even the title track sounded like a band trying to recapture something they left on Conny Plank’s studio floor.
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Echorich – Surely Midge had one foot out of the door at that point [“UVOX”] and I’m guessing that he went through the motions for the sake of Cross and Currie after sacking Cann, but he did his friends no favors.
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Someone once said that they thought that mashups were a mostly social aspect of music.
In the spirit of being social I share this link. Not often that you see someone mashing with Ultravox.
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well, this is as good a post to reply to as any for this information, so here goes:
————–
This is being released in Nov. on both 4xvinyl and 2xcd and various bundles. Here’s the 2CD version track list..
CD 1:
1. All Stood Still (Extended Version)
2. I Never Wanted To Begin (Extended Version)
3. Reap The Wild Wind (Extended Version)
4. We Came To Dance (Extended Version)
5. One Small Day (Special Re-Mix)
6. One Small Day (Special Re-Mix Extra)
7. White China (Special Re-Mix)
8. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (Special Re-Mix)
9. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (US Extended Re-Mix)
10. One Small Day (US Club Version)
CD 2:
11. Lament (Extended Version)
12. Heart of The Country (Special Re-Mix)
13. Love’s Great Adventure (Extended Version)
14. One Small Day (Final Mix)
15. Serenade (Special Re-Mix)
16. Same Old Story (Extended Version)
17. All Fall Down (Extended Version)
18. Brilliant (Blank & Jones Extended Remix)
19. Brilliant (Blank & Jones Club Mix)
20. Brilliant (Blank & Jones US Club Mix)
so a few things, there’s a bundle with a limited 7 inch (not a 12 inch).
it’s called the 12 inch collection, but some of the tracks were digital or cd only,
so that it might the first time that some tracks are on vinyl.
i always wondered who did the whita china (remix), since it is never mentioned
in the credits of any of the releases or remasters.
still, it’s good to have them remastered including the 3 tracks that
aren’t included in the recent re-releases.
later
-1
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negative1ne – Actually, it’s a fantastic place to leave the news! Thanks for the tip. I unsubscribed from the mailing list following the last album and missed seeing this today, but I would be amenable to having the US “Dancing” mixes on actual CD and the $16.99 asking price is modest enough. I guess the re-issues they did last year sold well enough to make them try this. It’s good that they did those since I think the catalog titles should not be selling for a small fortune a few years later. I was happy to recently get the “Lament” digipak in the matte black/thermographic sleeve since the “definitive edition” in O-card of that album was the only one of those DLX RMs that I hadn’t managed to get yet. Apart from “U-Vox” which I already own too many copies of at just two already! Since you asked, the original CD and LP in printed PVC sleeve.
Since Ultravox produced “Lament,” I always thought that they made all of the remixes to accompany that campaign. As far as I know, the only time that others touched the masters for a mix was on the US “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes/One Small Day” double A-side US 12″ with François Kevorkian and Steve Thompson getting remix honors. DJ culture really wasn’t enshrined then like it is now where no one mixes their own stuff – that’s not the point, but in ’81-’84 the original producer [or the tea boy] usually remixed for 12″ after the band went to the pub. Oh – and the Razormaid mixes by Joseph Watt and Art Maharg of “White China,” which weren’t licensed for this project it seems, so put aside some money for the 3xCD Remix Collection in 6 years!
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Hi Mr Monk,
Well I debated about where to post it, since it was tangentially related to this original post.
Anyways, it takes a few of the mixes from Rare 2, all the mixes from the 12 inch remix collection, assorted mixes from the remasters, digital only white china remix, and the 3 digital blank and jones remixes and combines them. There is a limited 7 inch with the remaining 2 blank and jones remixes of briliant on them.
(by the way, forgive my line spacing, word press always manages to put line breaks in where i don’t want them).
1 i’m glad the prior US vinyl mixes are being put on here for completion
2 they left off all the instrumentals and works in progress, since this isn’t
part of what constitutes the 12 inch collection
3 as i mentioned they included tracks that weren’t originally on vinyl
the other thing i noticed is they left off the edited ‘all in one day’ from the 12 inch:
https://www.discogs.com/Ultravox-All-In-One-Day/release/870588
which might be similar to the album version, i’ve never checked.
it’s probably vinyl only, and wasn’t on the remaster, as that was a different version.
the ‘we came to dance (extended mix)’ is the longer of the 2 versions, and the
one that was prior to this on the 12 inch collection cd, is about 20 seconds shorter.
back to the white china remix, i was aware of the razormaid remix and have that,
but the credits there don’t answer the question either. i posted it on one of the official
fan forums, but they didn’t know the answer either (cerise and rob), the forum crashed,
so that post is lost currently.
the heart of the country german 12 inch, only lists ultravox as the producer, no mix credits,
as does the uk dancing with tears in my eyes, the uk one small day special remix, and the uk limited one small day remix extra, and the uk lament twelve inch. none of these have any helpful information, and neither do the reprinted booklets that came with the last 2 sets of remasters.
the credits from the original US lament cd says this :
All tracks composed by Ultravox.
Produced by Ultravox.
Recorded at Musicfest Studio.
Engineer Rik Walton.
Mixed at MayfairStudio.
Engineer John Hudson.
even looking at the credits for the 2xLP collection that have 3 of the mixes,
gives mix credits for extended serenade, we came to dance, and reap the wild wind.
but not for the mixes from lament, and not for the remix of loves great adventure either.
well, i will get it on cd, and probably skip the vinyl for now. we’ll see how it goes.
later
-1
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As is the case with a lot of the UK singles,
most are dirt cheap nowadays, but the shipping
is expensive.
still, i finally managed to pick up a few
more missing items for my collection.
1) the dancing with tears in my eyes
UK gatefold 12″. i’ve had other
pressings, clear vinyl, the regular,
but got a decent one now
2) the limited (#3276) special
re-mix extra version of ‘one small
day’ 12 inch that i didn’t know existed
until recently. i got the one without
the autographs though, i’m sure
thats a lot harder to find.
i’ll still be keeping an eye out in
the future for more like these.
but these are good to have
for now.
later
-1
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