Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)
"Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" is a song by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and was the third single released from their third studio album Architecture & Morality. It is mostly instrumental.
To prevent confusion with their previous single "Joan of Arc", the song was retitled "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" for its single release. Both songs are about the French heroine Joan of Arc and both reached the Top 5 on the UK Singles Chart - although this single was more successful in Europe, where it topped the charts in several countries. It also hit #5 in Ireland and #7 in New Zealand. The song was used during the climax and closing credits to the final episode of the second series of Ashes to Ashes.
Ned Raggett of AllMusic described the song as "epic", concluding, "With another bravura McCluskey lead and a mock-bagpipe lead that's easily more entrancing than the real thing, it's a wrenching ballad like no other before it and little since."
In 1989, Radio Veronica listeners voted "Maid of Orleans" the 60th greatest song of all time.
Read more about Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc): The Song, The B-sides, Promotional Video, Chart Performance, Sleeves, Covers
Famous quotes containing the words maid, waltz and/or joan:
“Where has Maid Quiet gone to,
Nodding her russet hood?
The winds that awakened the stars
Are blowing through my blood.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?”
—Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)
“General de Gaulle was a thoroughly bad boy. The day he arrived, he thought he was Joan of Arc and the following day he insisted that he was Georges Clemenceau.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)