Songoftheday 4/16/15 - We're heading for Venus and still we stand tall, 'cause maybe they've seen us and welcome us all...

"The Final Countdown" - Europe
from the album The Final Countdown (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day comes from the Swedish heavy metal band Europe, who came together in Stockholm at the end of the 70s with lead singer Joey Tempest, who wrote all the songs on the band's breakthrough album The Final Countdown, their third release. The title track, produced by Keith Elson, who helmed sets from arena rock bands like Journey and Night Ranger, was an apocalyptic anthem that rode in like horses on its pop-gothic synth riff that sounded somewhere between trumpets and an elephant's fart. And with Tempest's soaring voice that rolls on the melody like Steve Perry, the tune somehow overcame its inherent campiness of subject to earn a spot on American rock radio...

"The Final Countdown" became Europe's first American top-10 hit in March of 1987, while peaking at #18 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally the song was one of the biggest records of the year, topping the chart in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden (of course), and most of the rest of Europe.

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That same year, Australian teen star Dannii Minogue (yes, Kylie's sister) recorded the song for the local show Young Talent Time....

Here's Europe performing the song live in 1987...

In 1999, the band tried to catch on to the Y2K craze and re-released the song as "The Final Countdown 2000" remixed by Brian Rawling ("Believe") and made the top-40 in the UK, Germany, and #6 in Sweden...

Just this past March, Glee covered the song for one of its final episodes...

And finally, back to the band on their 30th anniversary concert, still sounding pretty damn good...

Up tomorrow: Thrice the evening for this prog-rock band.