"Same Old Story" is the first single from

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...

's album ''

U-Vox ''U-Vox'' is the eighth studio album by British new wave band Ultravox, released on 9 October 1986 by Chrysalis Records. It was the band's fifth album during the Midge Ure era, and the final one featuring the band's 1979 lineup, with the exc ...

''. The single was released 26 September 1986.

Background

Now as a trio, without original drummer

Warren Cann Warren Reginald Cann (born 20 May 1950 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian drummer, drum machine programmer and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the British new wave band Ultravox, for which he was one of the ma ...

, the single took Ultravox in a new musical direction. "Same Old Story" featured jazzy brass by

Beggar and Co Beggar and Co (also written Beggar & Co) are a British jazz-funk group formed by Kenny Wellington, David Baptiste and Neville 'Breeze' McKrieth, originally members of the group Light of the World. Overview Beggar and Co's first single was "(S ...

, and female vocals in the chorus by

Carol Kenyon Carol Kenyon (sometimes spelt Karol; born 1959) is a British singer. She is best known for her vocals on the Heaven 17 hit song "Temptation", which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1983. When the song was re-released as a remix by ...

. It was clear that the 1986 version of Ultravox was now a very different entity.

Mark Brzezicki Mark Michael Brzezicki ( , ; born 21 June 1957) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Scottish rock band Big Country. He has also played with the Cult, Ultravox, From the Jam, Procol Harum, Rick Astley, the Crazy World of ...

was hired in and played drums on the album. In the music video of "Same Old Story" Pat Ahern played drums, and he also toured with the band on the U-Vox European Tour. The B-side was the instrumental track "3", which featured rhythms, synthesizers and Billy Curries recognizable piano. On the

maxi single A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, " In the Summertime" was t ...

there was an instrumental version of the

album track "

All in One Day "All in One Day" is the final single from Ultravox's 1986 album, ''U-Vox'', released on 8 June 1987. It was the last Ultravox release during their most popular 1980's incarnation with Midge Ure (until 2012). The song was written as a tribute to ...

", which featured an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

conducted and arranged by

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the " Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the ...

. "Same Old Story" reached 31 in

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Track listing

7" version

# "Same Old Story" – 3:58 # "3" – 4:01

12" version

# "Same Old Story (Extended Mix)" – 6:57 # "3" – 4:01 # "All in One Day (Instrumental)" – 6:12

References

{{Authority control 1986 singles 1986 songs Ultravox songs Songs written by Midge Ure Songs written by Billy Currie Songs written by Chris Cross Chrysalis Records singles