Sounds Like a Melody
Sounds Like a Melody is a song by Alphaville, which was written by Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens. It was released on 14 May 1984 as a successor to the number - one hits Big in Japan. The song was produced by Andreas Budde, while Wolfgang Loos was responsible for additional production and programming. Later, the band took the song title as the name of her own music label.
Musical Description
The lyrics are about a love story in which a young man imagines in the cinema, his girlfriend and he would be part of the action on the screen.
The musical structure of the piece is marked by an arpeggiated synth motif that begins and ends the song. The adventitious at the end of the song Strings, also give the motif symphonic character were played by an ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
The song was described as " sparkling radio hit " (Anders Wiik, German: " glittering radio hit " ) referred. Amazon.com calls the song a " guilty pleasure synth " (David Daley, German: "guilty synthesizer joy "). Parallels to the work of Jean Michel Jarre were also drawn.
More Releases
The Spanish version of the song was pressed on red vinyl. Sounds Like a Melody was also placed on Alphaville released in September of the same year debut album Forever Young. Later it appeared in different versions on the following releases of the band:
- First Harvest ( Warner, 1992)
- Stark Naked and Absolutely Live ( Sounds Like A Melody, 2000) ( Live Version)
- Forever Pop ( Warner, 2001) ( Staggman Remix)
- Little America ( DVD) ( Harper & Co., 2001) ( Live Version)
In the 1988 released remix album The Singles Collection, however, the song was missing.
Charts
Sounds Like a Melody was a number one in Sweden and reached top ten positions in other European charts. In both the German and the Austrian singles chart Sounds Like a Melody could charted at number 3 in the charts of Switzerland at No. 4 In Austria the song was even more successful than the worldwide hit Big In Japan.
The song was at number 16 in the German charts of the year 1984 not as successful as its predecessor, Big in Japan, which was the biggest selling single in Germany this year. In the Swiss charts of the year 1984 ranked the song number 15, number 19 in Austria
1993 Alphaville was awarded a gold record in Germany for the Single Sounds Like a Melody.
Cover versions
1993 also a sample of the original song in Cappella U Got 2 Let The Music was used.