"I Ran (So Far Away)", as their third single and it was the second single from their eponymous debut studio album. It topped the chart in Australia, and reached number seven in New Zealand and number nine in the United States. It peaked at number 31 in Germany. In the band's home country of the United Kingdom it reached number 43. However, the song was certified silver by the BPI.
In an article for Rolling Stone titled, "Anglomania: The Second British Invasion", Parke Puterbaugh wrote of the impact of the song's music video on its US chart success, "Fronted by a singer-synth player with a haircut stranger than anything you'd be likely to encounter in a month of poodle shows, A Flock of Seagulls struck gold on the first try."
Recording and composition
Lead vocalist Mike Score says that there were two main sources of inspiration for "I Ran (So Far Away)". The members of A Flock of Seagulls would regularly visit Eric's Club in Liverpool, where one of the bands had a song called "I Ran". Score noted that because A Flock of Seagulls would rehearse right after returning from Eric's, the song title and chorus may have got stuck in his head. Another idea came from a poster at a Zoo Records office. The band had gone there with the intent of securing a recording contract, and they wanted to use the poster, which featured a man and a woman running away from a flying saucer, as the cover for their first album, A Flock of Seagulls (1982). This depiction also helped spark the song's unusual space-like lyrics.
"I Ran (So Far Away)" was recorded at Battery Studios in London with producer Mike Howlett. It is a new wave and synth-pop song, with a run time of five minutes and seven seconds. The F-G-Am chord progression in the chorus is "distinctive and unusual in a pop song", but dates back to Romantic-era music.
During the song's introduction and musical interludes, short guitar riffs are played, which make use of echo.
Track listing
;7" Jive VS 102 (US) – 1982
Single release and legacy
The single was promoted by a distinctive music video directed by Tony van den Ende in which the band members performed in a room covered in aluminum foil and mirrors. The cameras used to film the video are clearly visible in many of the background reflections, their stands also covered in foil. The video is an homage to Brian Eno and Robert Fripp's (No Pussyfooting) album cover, which was also portrayed by the Strokes in the video for their single, "The End Has No End," two decades later. The video received heavy rotation on MTV in the summer of 1982, and helped the single to become a hit.
The band toured the United States extensively to promote the single, supporting Squeeze on their 1982 tour. As well as reaching number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, "I Ran" peaked at number 3 on the Top Tracks chart and number 8 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Subsequently, the album reached number 10 on the Billboard 200.
American pop-punk band Bowling for Soup recorded a cover of the song as a bonus track for the 2003 re-release of their album Drunk Enough to Dance. This version served as the theme song for DIC Entertainment's dub of the anime Saint Seiya (renamed Knights of the Zodiac).
The song is one of six featured songs selected for the EPCOT enclosed roller coaster Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Walt Disney World.
Iran word play
With its abbreviated title and beginning of its chorus matching how some Americans pronounce Iran (IPA: or ), the song was heard by Americans as "punningly political at a time when Iran itself was making headlines around the clock". The song, the music video, and the band were an "irresistible" package for American audiences, and by the summer of 1982, "America was clutching A Flock of Seagulls to its heart".
This word play issue was highlighted again in the fall of 2007, when the long-running American television show Saturday Night Live ran a parody version of the song that expressly mocked current Iranian policies like Holocaust denial.
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Chart (1982)
!Peak<br />position
|-
|Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|US Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|9
|-
|US Billboard Dance/Disco Top 80
|align="center"|8
|-
|US Billboard Top Tracks
|align="center"|3
|-
|US Cash Box
|align="center"|14
|}
Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Chart (1982)
!Rank
|-
|Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|15
|-
|New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)
|align="center"|31
|-
|US Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|67
|-
|US Cash Box
|align="center"|89
|-
|US Top Disco/Dance Singles/Albums
|align="center"|13
|}
Certifications
See also
- List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1980s