Songoftheday 12/26/15 - If you were born in heaven girl I'd understand so well, but ever since I met you child you've made my life such hell....

"Dreaming" - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
from the album The Best Of OMD (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day comes from the new wave/electropop band OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark), who had gone from cult faves in the early part of the 80s to pop hitmakers like on their 1986 single "(Forever) Live & Die". After that album, their seventh, the group released their first greatest hits set, spanning the time between 1980 and 1988 when they placed twelve songs into the British top-40 (ironically, their biggest American success, the Pretty In Pink theme "If You Leave", missed the top-40 in the UK). Included on the compilation was a new offering, "Dreaming", it was written by band leaders Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys and produced by the group. With a "big" sound like their soundtrack hit, with lyrics about coming to the realization that their girl is a crazy ass that they are addicted to anyways....

"Dreaming" became OMD's fourth and so-far final top-40 pop hit in America in May of 1988. The 12" single contained remixes from the likes of William Orbit, Bruce Forest, and Tom Lord-Alge, and climbed to #6 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, their highest-charting entry there. Internationally, while the song made the top-40 in Canada (#22), Germany (#26), Australia (#33), and New Zealand (#37), the record missed that level in their home country, peaking at #50 in the UK.

Later in 1988 a promo record called "Brides Of Frankenstein", which was a remix of five of their hits redone by house music master Steve "Silk" Hurley and raver Mike "Hitman" Wilson, reached the top ten on the club chart. However, tensions within the group caused everyone save McCluskey to jump ship by the end of the decade.  Carrying on as a solo act under the OMD moniker, he released the Sugar Tax album in 1991, and the first single, "Sailing On The Seven Seas", matched the act's highest ever rank on the British charts at #3. The next release from the album, the stellar "Pandora's Box", also made the UK top ten and climbed onto the American modern rock radio chart at #19. Two years later, Andy's next album as OMD, Liberator, included "Stand Above Me", which reached #6 on the U.S. club chart, #5 on Billboard's Modern Rock list, and #21 in the UK. In 1996, OMD released Universal, and after "Walking On The Milky Way" went to #17 in Britain, and the follow-up missed the top-40 altogether, Andy shut down OMD for a decade.

Humphreys and McCluskey reunited in 2006 with 80s prime lineup members Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes, with started as a TV promo and ended with a successful tour. They have since released two more albums, which had reached the top-40 on the albums chart in the UK, while single "If You Want It" was a minor hit in Germany (#50). Holmes left after medical issues sidelined him, with 90s drummer Stuart Kershaw reupping with the band.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's the Tom Lord-Alge remix that helped the song reach the top-10 on the dance chart...

....and the one done by William Orbit (Madonna's sometimes go-to guy)...

...and Andy as OMD in the 90s performing live...

Finally, the 80s OMD reunited in concert in 2011...

Up tomorrow: A "never-nude" wants you to repeat yourself.