Release and Reception
"The Sun Always Shines on T.V." was released in autumn 1985, becoming the second successful single from Hunting High and Low and one of the band's most recognizable and popular songs. The song peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also went Top 5 in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, in the band's home country of Norway, and it reached number one in Ireland and on the British Singles Chart which was bigger chart position there, than "Take On Me".
Tim DeGravine of Allmusic later wrote of the song,
"The Sun Always Shines on T.V." is just as thrilling (as "Take on Me"). Starting as a sad ballad, it explodes into something much more, as chugging guitars and operatic synths keep pace with Harket's evocative vocal stylings. If ever a 1980s song qualified as Wall of Sound, "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." would be it."
None of the versions released on the single were available on the band's album. The single mix was shortened down to 4:30, while the 12" featured an extended mix and instrumental version mixed by Steve Thompson. The b-side, "Driftwood" is a non-album track produced by the band.
There are two versions of the extended mix. The first one is 8:25, while the second, rarer one is 7:09 and starts with a slow piano intro.
Read more about this topic: The Sun Always Shines On T.V.
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release and/or reception:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)