"The Final Countdown" became an instant success on the charts worldwide upon its release, reaching number one in 25 countries (including the UK, where it spent two weeks at the top and is Europe's only Top 10 hit to date), and is widely regarded as the band's most popular and recognizable song. That was a statement on that and it sort of worked out nicely." It is set in the key of F♯ minor. I wanted to make a combination of guitars and keyboards. In 2009, Tempest told the BBC's Liam Allen, "I can trace bands like UFO in it, sort of a galloping theme like Iron Maiden had on The Number of the Beast album on quite a few songs. Nowadays, we don't rehearse it, but when we play it live, it is still just so amazing! It does communicate so well with the audience and we really love playing it.
So, I had that 'riff' tucked away in a drawer since my college years and I took it out, found a tempo for it, wrote lyrics, and it turned out to be a great opening for that album and for the show, as well. We were putting out our third album and we wanted a really 'grand' opening for the show. It was meant to be an opening for the 'live' show. It was over six minutes long and was never meant to be a hit or anything like that.
The ironic thing, though, is that the song was actually written for the fans. Apparently, it has been used a lot and it was nice to hear. Sometimes, you hear it on the streets or someone has it on their mobile phone or something… it's a nice feeling! Actually, I did an interview about a year ago with a newspaper from America and they talked about how much it's been used in sports in America… which I didn't know so much about. When their record company Epic Records suggested, however, that it should be the first single, the band decided to release it.
"The Final Countdown" was written to be an opening song for concerts, and they never thought it would be a hit. The band had not originally planned to release the song as a single, and some members wanted " Rock the Night" to be the first single. When it was time to choose the first single from the album The Final Countdown, Tempest suggested the song "The Final Countdown". The sound of the keyboard riff used in the recording was achieved by using a Yamaha TX-816 rack unit and a Roland JX-8P synthesizer, as described by Michaeli: "I made a brassy sound from the JX-8P and used a factory sound from the Yamaha, and just layered them together." The song's lyrics were inspired by David Bowie's song " Space Oddity". But in the end, I fought hard to make sure it got used." Tempest described their uncertainty: "Some of the guys in the band thought it was too different for a rock band. At first, the members expressed mixed reactions to it, including guitarist John Norum who was put off by the synth intro but said that he was glad that they didn't listen to him. Tempest recorded a demo version of the song and played it for the other band members. In 1985, bassist John Levén suggested that Tempest should write a song based on that riff. The song was based on a keyboard riff which Joey Tempest had written, as early as 1981 or 1982, on a Korg Polysix keyboard which he had borrowed from keyboardist Mic Michaeli.
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