"The Bell" is a song by musician

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

, first released on the 1992 album ''

Tubular Bells II ''Tubular Bells II'' is the fifteenth studio album by English guitarist and songwriter Mike Oldfield. It was released on 31 August 1992 by Warner Music UK and is the successor to his debut album '' Tubular Bells'' (1973). After his contract with ...

''. It was released as a single in April 1993 by

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

. The single features a restructured, shorter version of the album version of the song.

Master of Ceremonies and Instruments

"The Bell" is the ''finale'' of section one of ''Tubular Bells II'' and features a Master of Ceremonies, who introduces the instruments. The single has many versions of "The Bell", with different MCs. They include

Billy Connolly Sir William Connolly (born 24 November 1942) is a Scottish actor, retired comedian, artist, writer, musician, and presenter. He is sometimes known, especially in his homeland, by the Scots nickname the Big Yin ("the Big One"). Known for his ...

, Carlos Finaly (in Spanish),

Viv Stanshall Vivian Stanshall (born Victor Anthony Stanshall; 21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper ...

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

(in English and German) and

John Gordon Sinclair John Gordon Sinclair (born Gordon John Sinclair; 4 February 1962) is a Scottish actor, voice actor, singer, and novelist. He is best known for portraying Gregory in the 1981 film '' Gregory's Girl''. There was a Gordon Sinclair already register ...

(live). The performer on the album was

Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespe ...

, although credited as ''A strolling player''. This was due to the final voice not having been picked, when the artwork was produced. Some releases also include an instrumental version and remixes. The instruments introduced are, in order:

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, reed & pipe organ, glockenspiel,

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

vocal cords In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speec ...

, "two slightly

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

", "the Venetian effect", " digital sound processor" and

tubular bell Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

s. "The Venetian Effect" refers to a characteristic mandolin technique, a type of tremolo known as ''bisbigliando'', in which the effect of sustained notes is achieved by repetition. One of the MCs from the single releases, Viv Stanshall, had been the Master of Ceremonies for the equivalent "Finale" piece of the original 1973 ''Tubular Bells'', on which "The Bell" was based. The Connolly and Stanshall versions of the piece are available on the Warner compilation album ''The Best of Mike Oldfield: 1992–2003''.

Artwork

The single was released in the UK with multiple cover artworks, each with its own track listing, with a version of Oldfield's trademark tubular bell logo in the foreground. The US release used the cover shown at the top of this article depicting a forest river. Other covers included a yellow field landscape, mountainous landscape and a cityscape with a green bell. Additionally "The Bell / Sentinel Restructure" cover features a blue background with a red inverted bell.

Track listing

Forest river cover / US release

# "The Bell" (edit) – 4:06 # " Sentinel Restructure" (Trance mix) (Tommy Musto) – 5:42 # "Sentinel Restructure" ( Satoshi Tomii interpretation) – 7:41 # "Sentinel Restructure" (Global lust mix) (Mark Lewis) – 5:55 # "Sentinel Restructure" (Nobel prize mix) (

The Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...

) – 12:26 # "Sentinel Restructure" (Tubular beats) (Tommy Musto) – 4:14

Field cover

# "The Bell" (MC Viv Stanshall) – 3:28 # "Sentinel Restructure" (Trance mix) (Tommy Musto) – 5:42 # "Sentinel Restructure" (Global lust mix) (Mark Lewis) – 5:55 # "Sentinel Restructure" ( Satoshi Tomii interpretation) – 7:41

Metallic cityscape cover

# "The Bell" (Live – MC

) – 4:19 # "The Bell" ( MC Billy Connolly) – 3:29 # "The Bell" (MC

– German version) – 3:29 # "The Bell" (MC Strolling Player (

)) – 5:00 # "The Bell" (Instrumental) – 3:30

Mountain cover

# "The Bell" (MC Viv Stanshall) – 3:28 # "The Bell" (MC Otto – English version) – 3:28 # "The Bell" (MC Otto – German version) – 3:28

Mike Oldfield Photography cover

# "The Bell" (MC Carlos Finaly – Spanish version) – 3:28

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, The 1993 singles Mike Oldfield songs Songs written by Mike Oldfield Warner Music Group singles 1992 songs Song recordings produced by Trevor Horn