The song was written after the initial release of The Friends of Mr Cairo, which commercially underperformed expectations set by the band. Following a dinner between the two, Vangelis informed Anderson of a chord sequence he was developing and invited Anderson over to finish it, which they accomplished over the span of three hours. It was issued as a single in November 1981 and reached the top ten in several European countries, including the UK Singles Chart. Upon the song's chart success, it was later appended to The Friends of Mr Cairo as the opening track.[2]
Charts
In the United Kingdom, the single peaked at No.6[3] and was certified Silver (1982) for sales of over 250,000 copies by BPI.[4]
It reached No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 41 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[5] In Europe, it peaked at No. 1 in Switzerland and Poland, No. 2 in Ireland and the Netherlands, No. 3 in Belgium, No. 5 in Israel, No. 6 in West Germany, No. 9 in Sweden, No. 13 in France, and No. 19 in Austria. It also reached the top 50 in Australia[6] and New Zealand.[7] In 2012, it reached No. 4 on the Sweden Digital Songs chart.[5]
