Ultravox are up against it. They’ve lost a guitarist and lead singer John Foxx. So with a virtual cattle gun up against their forehead, they reconfigured as a quartet with former Rich Kids member Midge Ure – a singing guitarist with matinee idol looks.

So when they began working with legendary producer Conny Plank on their next album, the band were open to possibilities. On what would become the title track of the album, bassist Chris Cross recalls that “Vienna” was mostly the result of concentrated exploration.

“I remember Midge and Billy (Currie) playing around with the synths and I came in and just started with a drone noise first then the percussive sound and it just slipped into place. When the others like something it's always a good sign.”

The Minimoog the band had in the studio was the source of much of the song’s underpinnings as well as its signature, pulsing bassline. Initially they had acquired it as a replacement for an EMS Synthi AKS that they found simply too unpredictable to play live.

“I loved the randomness that was inevitable when programming (the Synthi),” Cross says. “However, live it was a nightmare. It would hold tuning for a nanosecond so the only roughly affordable alternative was the Minimoog.”

As winter settled on January 1981, Ultravox released their game changer. “Vienna” reached the number 2 spot on the U.K. charts and kicked off an extended run of success. Many years later Cross would credit the experimental nature of early synthesizers for prompting inspiration.

“I used to like wondering what mood my synths would be in at the start of the day. Will they have a good day or just play up like mechanical adolescents? A lot of bands just use presets and the best part of synths is finding a new sound.”