Dave Hughes left the tape. Paul kept it.
Souvenir started as tape. Dave Hughes, who had already left Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, knocked on the studio door with a recording of a choir tuning up. He asked Paul Humphreys to cut the tape into loops, and said Humphreys could keep a copy as payment. Humphreys and Martin Cooper worked the loops until a song appeared. The working title was The Choir Song. It stayed that way until the last week Peter Saville had for the sleeve.
Humphreys sang it because Andy McCluskey was on holiday. He did not think of himself as the singer. He put a vocal down because he was excited by the track, then played it to McCluskey on his return. McCluskey told him he did not need to sing it. The lead stayed with Paul. Cooper, who had been playing live with the band and was becoming a member, shared the writing credit. Mike Howlett produced the single at Wessex Studios. A synth line does the job of a vocal chorus.
DinDisc released it on 21 August 1981, catalogue DIN 24, as the first single from the album that would be Architecture & Morality. The B-sides were an Amazon Studios version of Motion & Heart and Sacred Heart. Saville and Brett Wickens designed the 7-inch with a hole cut in the sleeve so the label showed through. It was the first single to carry the short name OMD on the cover. A 10-inch, with an extra verse, followed.
I was a reluctant singer but sang it because Andy was on holiday. I got so excited about the track I thought I’d throw some vocal ideas down. I played it to Andy when he was back and he said, I don’t need to sing this, it’s perfect as it is.
(Paul Humphreys, Record Collector)
The single entered the UK chart on 29 August 1981 at number 41. A week later it was at 23, and Top of the Pops played it. On 15 September it peaked at number 3. It was the 28th best-selling UK single of the year, and it remains, with Sailing on the Seven Seas from 1991, the band’s highest British chart place. Spain and Portugal took it to number 1. McCluskey, in 1987, said he had found the song a bit soppy because he had not written it. The public did not.
Saville filmed the promo at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire and in the park at Blenheim Palace. McCluskey drives Saville’s red Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. Humphreys stands on the Palladian Bridge and sings. Architecture & Morality followed in November 1981 and reached number 3 in Britain. The choir loops on Souvenir had already set the tone: a Mellotron came next, and the two Joan of Arc singles. The hit was not a later best-of remix. It was the first song written for that album, sung by Humphreys because McCluskey was not in the room.
