"To France" | ||||
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Single by Mike Oldfield | ||||
from the album Discovery | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 18 June 1984 [1] | |||
Recorded | "In the Swiss Alps at 2,000 metres within sight of Lake Geneva on sunny days" [2] | |||
Genre | Europop, rock | |||
Length | 4:33 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mike Oldfield | |||
Producer(s) | Mike Oldfield Simon Phillips | |||
Mike Oldfield singles chronology | ||||
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"To France" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1984. It is from the album Discovery and features Maggie Reilly on vocals.
The musical theme used in "To France" was also used on the first track on side two of the Discovery album, "Talk About Your Life". The B-sides for the single are the non-album tracks "In the Pool" and "Bones". [3] The B-sides later re-appeared on the re-issue of the "Moonlight Shadow" single in 1993.
The music video that appears on the Elements – The Best of Mike Oldfield video for "To France" is a mock-live performance of the song. Oldfield plays a Fender Stratocaster in the video.
The theme is folk ballad mildly based on the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, who would never reach the continent when escaping from complots in Scotland after coming back from France. There she was brought up, bethroted and shortly marriaged to Francis II of France until his death in 1560, when she came back to the tense unrest times of the Scottish Reformation and married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley in 1565. He was allegedly murdered after killin her private secretary and friend, and she married who was supposed to be the assassin in 1567, but an uprising forced her to abdicate and she sought refuge fleeing southwards, but would instead be set captive in custody in several castles for more than eighteen years by Elizabeth I of England, and finally beheaded in Fotheringhay Castle in 1587.
The song reached the top 10 in a number of countries in 1984 and topped the French charts for one week in October 1984.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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"To France" | ||||
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Single by Maggie Reilly | ||||
from the album Elena | ||||
Released | January 1997 [17] | |||
Recorded | 1996 | |||
Genre | Folk pop | |||
Length | 5:09 | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mike Oldfield | |||
Producer(s) | Nick Patrick | |||
Maggie Reilly singles chronology | ||||
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In 1996, Maggie Reilly re-recorded "To France" on her solo album Elena, and in 2009 she recorded another version of the song for her album Looking Back Moving Forward. Compared to the original, this version is significantly Pop-heavy.
Chart (1997) | Peak position |
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Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) [18] | 17 |
Germany (Official German Charts) [19] | 19 |
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) [20] | 30 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [21] | 53 |
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) [22] | 22 |
"To France" | ||||
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Single by Kim Wilde | ||||
from the album Snapshots | ||||
Released | 2 December 2011 | |||
Recorded | 2011 | |||
Genre | Pop rock | |||
Length | 3:59 | |||
Label | Columbia SevenOne | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mike Oldfield | |||
Producer(s) | Andrew Murray Ricky Wilde | |||
Kim Wilde singles chronology | ||||
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"To France" is the second single to be released from Kim Wilde's twelfth studio album Snapshots . It was released digitally on 2 December 2011. Included on the single is a Christmas remix of the song as well as an exclusive remix of "It's Alright" by German Euro-dance band Groove Coverage.
Maggie Reilly is a Scottish singer best known for her collaborations with the composer and instrumentalist Mike Oldfield. Most notably, she performed lead vocals on the Oldfield songs "Family Man", "Moonlight Shadow", "To France", and "Foreign Affair", all of which were international hits in the early 1980s.
Crises is the eighth studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 27 May 1983 on Virgin Records. Oldfield started recording the album towards the end of his 1982 tour supporting his previous record, Five Miles Out. It marked a continuation of Oldfield's experimentation with more accessible music which began in the late 1970s; side one contains the 20-minute "Crises" and side two contains a collection of shorter songs which feature vocalists Maggie Reilly, Jon Anderson, and Roger Chapman. Oldfield produced Crises with drummer Simon Phillips, who also plays on the album.
QE2 is the sixth studio album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1980 on Virgin Records. The album was named after the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2.
Five Miles Out is the seventh studio album by English recording artist Mike Oldfield, released on 19 March 1982 by Virgin Records in the UK. After touring in support of his previous album, QE2 (1980), ended in mid-1981, Oldfield started on a follow-up with members of his touring band performing the music. The album features the 24-minute track "Taurus II" on side one and four shorter songs on side two. The songs "Family Man" and "Orabidoo" are credited to Oldfield and members of his touring band which included vocalist Maggie Reilly, drummer Morris Pert, and guitarist Rick Fenn.
"Moonlight Shadow" is a song written and performed by English multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, released as a single in May 1983 by Virgin Records, and included on his eighth album, Crises, of the same year. The vocals were performed by Scottish vocalist Maggie Reilly, who had collaborated with Mike Oldfield since 1980. It is Oldfield's most successful single, reaching number one on numerous charts around Europe.
Discovery is the ninth studio album by English multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 25 June 1984 on Virgin Records. It comprises a number of pop songs, most notably the single "To France", as well as the instrumental "The Lake".
Elements – The Best of Mike Oldfield is a compilation album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1993 by Virgin Records.
"Time After Time" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper from her debut studio album, She's So Unusual (1983). It was released as the album's second single in March 1984, by Epic and Portrait Records. Written by Lauper and Rob Hyman, who also provided backing vocals, the song was produced by Rick Chertoff. It was written in the album's final stages, after "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night" had been written or recorded. The writing began with the title, which Lauper had seen in TV Guide, referring to the 1979 film Time After Time.
"Out of Touch" is a song by American duo Daryl Hall & John Oates from their twelfth studio album Big Bam Boom (1984). The song was released as the lead single from Big Bam Boom on Thursday, October 4, 1984, by RCA Records. This song was their last Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, topping the chart for two weeks in December 1984. It also became the duo's fourteenth consecutive top 40 hit since 1980.
"You to Me Are Everything" is a song by British soul group the Real Thing, released as a single in 1976. Written by Ken Gold and Michael Denne and produced by Gold, "You to Me Are Everything" was the Real Thing's sole number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top in July 1976. The song was re-released ten years later titled the "Decade Remix" which returned the song to the chart in March 1986, reaching number five.
"In Dulci Jubilo"/"On Horseback" is a double A-side single and third overall by English musician Mike Oldfield, released in November 1975 by Virgin Records. It features an instrumental version of the German traditional Christmas carol "In dulci jubilo" and Oldfield's second version of the song following an earlier recording released as the B-side to his previous single, "Don Alfonso". The song "On Horseback" is the final and previously untitled section to "Ommadawn " from his third studio album Ommadawn, released just one month before. The single is certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry for selling 200,000 copies in the UK.
"Tricks of the Light" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield released in 1984 and is from the Virgin Records album Discovery. Maggie Reilly and Barry Palmer perform vocals for this song.
"Shadow on the Wall" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1983 by Virgin Records. English rock singer Roger Chapman performs vocals on the song and it is taken from Oldfield's Crises album. The song was a hit single especially in Germanic countries.
"Family Man" is a pop rock song written by Mike Oldfield, Tim Cross, Rick Fenn, Mike Frye, Morris Pert, and Maggie Reilly. It became a hit song in 1982 for Mike Oldfield with Maggie Reilly as the vocalist. Daryl Hall and John Oates achieved success a year later with their cover version. In 2009, Maggie Reilly recorded another version of the song for her solo studio album Looking Back Moving Forward.
"Five Miles Out" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1982 by Virgin Records. It is from the album Five Miles Out and predominantly features vocals by Maggie Reilly, but also includes vocals by Oldfield himself.
This is the singles discography of English musician Mike Oldfield.
"The X-Files" is an instrumental written and produced by American film and television composer Mark Snow. On its parent album, The Truth and the Light: Music from the X-Files, the track is titled "Materia Primoris". It is a remixed version of the original theme Snow composed for the science fiction television series The X-Files in 1993. The composition was released as a single in 1996 and achieved chart success, particularly in France, where it reached number one on the SNEP Singles Chart. The composition has since been covered by many artists, including DJ Dado and Triple X; DJ Dado's version was a major hit in Europe while Triple X's version reached number two in Australia.
"Foreign Affair" is a song written by Maggie Reilly and Mike Oldfield, which first appeared on Oldfield's 1983 album Crises on Virgin Records.
Snapshots is the 12th studio album and the first covers album by British singer Kim Wilde. It was released in Germany on 26 August 2011 by Columbia SevenOne. The album features versions of songs hand-picked by Wilde from the last five decades. It was later released in other European countries, including the United Kingdom, on 28 November 2011.
The 1984 Suite is a remix compilation album by the British musician, Mike Oldfield released on 29 January 2016 by Mercury/Virgin EMI. The compilation pulls together tracks from his two 1984 studio albums; Discovery and The Killing Fields. The album is available as part of the Discovery deluxe edition or as a standalone vinyl LP but not as a standalone CD. It has also been released in 5.1 Surround Sound as part of the Discovery deluxe set.