Happy Anniversary: Echo and the Bunnymen, “Silver”

32 years ago today, Echo and the Bunnymen released the second single from their acclaimed Ocean Rain album, and while it may not have gone on to remain as iconic as the album’s first single, “The Killing Moon,” it’s still got the sort of hooks that any band would kill for.

Indeed, “Silver” is such a strong track that it actually leads off Ocean Rain, its bright and shiny strings helping to set the musical tone for the album, which found the Bunnymen working with a 35-piece orchestra. Guitarist Will Sergeant once said of the material contained therein, “We wanted to make something conceptual with lust orchestration; not Mantovani, something with a twist. It’s all pretty dark.” That’s as may be, but the darkness doesn’t really begin to envelop the album until its second song, the gorgeously gloomy “Nocturnal Me,” and you’ve likely to start that song with a smile plastered on your face, as that’s the effect that those soaring strings on “Silver” invariably has on most listeners.

Alas, for as great a song as it may be, “Silver” failed to capture the attention of listeners on the same level as “The Killing Moon,” stalling at #30 on the UK Singles chart, over 20 places shy of its predecessor’s #9 high. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped it from remaining a classic Bunnymen track, one which has continued to find its way into the band’s set on a regular basis, as it will most likely do when they embark on their 2016 US tour in September.