"Dreaming" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Song#:  3446

Date:  03/12/1988

Debut:  82

Peak:  16

Weeks:  17

Genre:  Synthpop

Pop Bits:  This English band had amassed five Top 10 singles and four Top 10 albums in the UK since 1980, but it wasn't until their Pretty in Pink soundtrack song "If You Leave" (#4) that they truly broke through in the US. Their album following that hit, 1986's The Pacific Age, did fairly well in the US thank to the #19 single "(Forever) Live and Die." With nearly a decade of hits in the UK and a newfound audience in the US, the time seemed right to catch everyone up with a compilation. The Best of OMD was assembled and to help promote it, this new track was added on and released as a single. The song did well in clubs and reached #6 on the Dance chart. It then became the band's second biggest hit in the US getting to #16. The collection would only get to #46, but it would eventually become the only album in their discography to go gold. By the end of the decade, the co-founders of the band Andy McClusky and Paul Humphreys decided to go their separate ways. McClusky would carry on under the OMD moniker while Humphreys formed The Listening Pool. They would reunite in 2006 and have since released three albums under the OMD name.

ReduxReview:  OMD was a band that I should have liked a lot more than I did. I will dig up something from them every now and then to see if I could get a better foothold in their music, but I usually end up just listening to a minor handful of their hits. Most things I like are on the Best of OMD disc. This particular track is one that I enjoy. I probably like it even a little more than "If You Leave." I liked the eighth-note chuggin' synthpop rhythm and it had a lovely chorus with dreamy chord changes. I bought the single back in the day. While critics and true fans prefer the band's earlier more experimental works, their pop-leaning tracks like this one called to me a bit more.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  The McClusky version of OMD would release three albums between 1991 and 1996. The LPs would do well in the UK with 1991's Sugar Tax being the most successful. It would be a #3 platinum seller thanks to two Top 10 hits. The albums were far less successful in the US. The only single to reach the Pop chart was the #93 "Stand By Me" in 1993. However, the band did score three hits on the US Dance chart. Two would make the Top 10 while one would just barely miss out at #11. Still, that didn't do much to help sell albums and the only one of the three to make the US chart was 1993's Liberator, which made a brief appearance at #169. Despite not having bigger success in the US, they influenced a lot of other artists including Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, and Moby.

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