typically over-the top classical ending." Release and chart performance The song is the title track of the band's album Vienna, released in 1980. Record company Chrysalis Records was reluctant to release the song as a single, as they thought it was too slow and too long to be successful. But the band wanted to release it as a single and it became the album's third single in January 1981. The single spent four consecutive weeks at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart without ever reaching the top. It was kept off the top spot by John Lennon's "Woman" for a week and then by Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face" for a further three weeks. "Vienna" is ranked as the UK's sixth best-selling single of 1981. The single was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in February 1981, denoting sales in excess of 500,000 copies in the UK. It also won Single of the Year at the 1981 Brit Awards. It was voted Britain's favourite single ever to peak at No. 2 on the charts in a 2012 poll by BBC Radio 2 and the Official Charts Company (OCC). It was also awarded an honorary No. 1 by the OCC. The single topped the charts in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands. It just missed the Australian top 10, remaining at number 11 for three weeks. In 2017, Ure was offered to meet Dolce, but Ure refused, saying "I’ve had 40 years of people talking about Joe ‘Bloody’ Dolce and I don’t want to spend what I've got left talking about when I met him." Music video The music video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, is particularly evocative of The Third Man. It was Ultravox's second video, after "Passing Strangers" (also with Mulcahy), and cost £6000–£7000, footed by the band after Chrysalis refused to fund it. The gravestone that is shown in the video and on the single cover is part of the grave of the Austrian piano manufacturer Carl Schweighofer, and is located in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. B-sides The B-side to the single is "Passionate Reply". It was recorded in August 1980 at Criteria Studios in Miami, on their American tour. Cann said to Jonas Wårstad about the track: "The B-side of the 7", 'Passionate Reply' was a promising song, perhaps it needed some 'living with' before we would've considered it finished. As it was, we thought it