| "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz of Joan of Arc)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | ||||
| from the album Architecture & Morality | ||||
| B-side | "Navigation" "Of All the Things We've Made" |
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| Released | January 15, 1982 | |||
| Format | 7" single, 12" single, Mini CD | |||
| Recorded | The Manor, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, England | |||
| Genre | New Wave, Synthpop | |||
| Length | 4:09 | |||
| Label | DinDisc | |||
| Writer(s) | Andy McCluskey | |||
| Producer | OMD & Richard Manwaring | |||
| Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark singles chronology | ||||
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"Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" is a song by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and was the third single released from their third studio album Architecture & Morality.
To prevent confusion with their previous single "Joan of Arc", the song was retitled "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz of Joan of Arc)" for its single release. Both songs are about the French heroine Joan of Arc and both reached the Top 5 on the UK Singles Chart - although this single was more successful in Europe, where it topped the charts in several countries. The song was used during the climax and closing credits to the final episode of the second series of Ashes to Ashes.
Contents |
Maid of Orleans had originally been written by Andy McCluskey on 30 May 1981, the 550th anniversary of Joan of Arc's death. The song is in 6/8 time, giving it a waltz-like style. With only eight lines of text it is almost an instrumental. The main theme is a synthesized bagpipe tune (played on the Mellotron --- consisting of the "female choir" and the "3-Violins" presets). The intro is made of strange noises and was added later:[1]
| “ | The intro was a problem for radio and we did do edited versions where it was shortened.
The idea came about because we actually had the song recorded but thought the track started oddly and needed something else to announce its arrival. At the time of A+M we were making a lot of music that was ambient soundscapes. The natural thing was to give the song an intro that set up the feel for the main themes to resolve out of the noises. It's not meant to "mean" anything specific, just set up a feeling to let the track grow out of the strange noises. I think that it worked well! BTW.. for the sound anoraks...most of the noises are melotron [sic] vocal sounds slowed down/sped up and greatly distorted simply by completely overdriving the old Helios desk in The Manor Studio. Pink noise and snare drum in lots of reverb. |
” |
The songs on the B-sides are "Navigation" and "Of All the Things We've Made" (12" and CD single only). Both songs can be found as bonus tracks on the remastered versions of Architecture & Morality. "Of All the Things We've Made" was added to the track list of their next album Dazzle Ships, released in 1983. "Navigation" was the title track for the 2001 B-sides compilation album Navigation: The OMD B-Sides. The early 12" single sleeves list the track "Experiments In Vertical Take Off" , but this song was never written.
Side one
Side two
Side one
Side two
The sleeve erroneously states that there are 12" versions of "Maid of Orleans" and "Joan of Arc" on the CD single.
For the promotional video, the outdoor shots were made at Fountains Abbey near Aldfield, North Yorkshire in December 1981 during the snowy winter and the indoor shots at The Manor Studio. The video was directed by Steve Barron and featured Julia Tobin, an actress from the Royal Shakespeare Company as Joan of Arc.[2] The promo video is included on the video version of The Best of OMD and on the bonus DVD of the 2007 reissue of Architecture & Morality.
| Chart (1982) | Peak position |
Certifications (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|
| Austrian Singles Chart [3] | 2 | |
| Belgium Singles Chart | 1 | |
| Canadian RPM Singles Chart [4] | 32 | |
| Dutch Singles Chart[5] | 1 | Gold [6] |
| German Media Control Charts Singles Chart[7] | 1 | |
| Irish Singles Chart [8] | 5 | |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[9] | 7 | |
| Spanish Singles Chart | 1 | |
| Swiss Singles Chart [3] | 4 | |
| UK Singles Chart[10] | 4 | BPI: Silver[11] |
| Preceded by "The Land of Make Believe" by Bucks Fizz |
Dutch Top 40 number-one single 13 March 1982 – 3 April 1982 (4 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Aurora" by Nova |
| Preceded by "Ebony and Ivory" by Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder |
German Singles Chart number-one single 9 July 1982 – 23 July 1982 (3 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Ich will Spaß" by Markus |
| Preceded by "Ich will Spaß" by Markus |
German Singles Chart number-one single 6 August 1982 (1 week) |
Succeeded by "Ich will Spaß" by Markus |
The cover was designed by Peter Saville, Carol Wilson and Brett Wickens and was inspired by a stained glass design by Anton Wolff.
There are several sleeve designs for the 12" version. The original sleeve design featured an embossed coin motif on a silver foil. It was only released for a limited time, because the band didn't like this design. It was replaced with a similar stained glass sleeve as the 7" version in several variations.
Watergate recorded a cover version of 'Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)' as "Maid Of Orleans (The Battle II)" in the year 1999[12].
Very other bands covered the song Mila Mar in 2000[13], Third Bass [14] in 2001, Voi feat. DJ Frost & Talla 2XLC [15], Z-People in 1998[16], S.O.S. in 1997 [17] and many more. In 2009, Maid of Orleans was covered by the German DJ and radio presenter "DJ Happy Vibes" as a very dodgy house track.