Cambodia (song)

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“Cambodia”

Single by Kim Wilde
from the album Select

B-side

"Watching For Shapes"

Released

1981

Format

7", 12"

Ricky Wilde, Marty Wilde

Producer

Ricky Wilde

Kim Wilde singles chronology

Music sample
Water on Glass/Boys (1981)	Cambodia (1981)	Ego (1982)
"Cambodia" Problems? See media help.

For the country in southeast asia, see Cambodia.

"Cambodia" is the fourth single by British singer Kim Wilde. It was released at the end of 1981; a year in which Wilde had already scored three highly successful hit singles and a best-selling debut album. It is regarded as one of her classic songs.

The single was another international success, topping the charts in France, Sweden and Switzerland and hitting the Top 10 in several other nations. It was released on the 7" format but also as a 12" single in Germany, although not in a remixed or extended version. The B-side of both releases was an exclusive non-album track called "Watching For Shapes".

"Cambodia" was later included on Wilde's second original album, Select and was followed by a more uptempo, instrumental version of the song with the title "Reprise".

Musically and lyrically, "Cambodia" showed a change in direction for Wilde from the New Wave feel of her debut album. The song was mainly synth-driven, with oriental-sounding percussion. The lyrics, telling the story of a Thailand-based RAF wife whose husband mysteriously disappears after flying out to Cambodia and never returns, are inspired by some of the tragedies that occurred in South Vietnam. In writing the lyrics, Marty Wilde imagined an American pilot flying in a F-4 Phantom II and getting shot down by a surface-to-air missile. In fact, the "Reprise" track was originally intended to include sound of jet engines followed by the sound of a rocket blowing the Phantom up, but the sleeve of the single showed a cartoon featuring helicopters, so these sounds had to be replaced.

[edit] Chart performance

Chart (1981/2)	Peak position
UK	12
Denmark	1
France	1
Sweden	1
Switzerland	1
Germany	2
Netherlands	2
South Africa	2
Norway	3
Austria	4
Belgium	4
Australia	7
Ireland	15

[edit] Covers

Apoptygma Berzerk's 2005 album You and Me Against the World includes a cover version of "Cambodia". The Swedish Death'N'Roll band Hearse released a cover of the song in 2004 on their album Armageddon, Mon Amour. The German techno group Scooter covered the song on their 2007 album Jumping All Over the World.