Puneet Varma (Editor)

Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)

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B-side
  
"Committed"

Format
  
7", 12"

Genre
  
New wave, synthpop

Released
  
16 November 1982

Recorded
  
1982

Length
  
4:09 (7" version) 5:29 (Album version) 9:34 (Extended version)

"Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)" is a 1982 song by A Flock of Seagulls, the opening song and only hit single from their second album Listen. The song exemplifies "synth-pop's spaced-out loneliness" and yearning for imagined absent lovers, and is noted for its Wall of Sound-styled layer of synthesizer padding – a "multi-layered, hypnotic song", according to AllMusic.

Contents

Unlike the band's 1982 hit "I Ran (So Far Away)", largely a United States and Australian hit, "Wishing" performed strongly in Great Britain and reached the Top 10; in the US it reached the top 30 on the U.S. Billboard charts in summer 1983. In South Africa, it was enormously popular, reaching the no. 8 position.

7": Jive. / Jive 25 United Kingdom

  1. "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) (Long Version)" – 4:00
  2. "Committed" – 2:50

12": Jive. / Jive T 25 United Kingdom

  1. "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) (Long Version)" – 9:08
  2. "Committed" – 5:34
  3. "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) (Short Version)" – 4:57

12": Jive. / Jive VJ 12014 United States

  1. "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)" – 6:03
  2. "The Flight Of Yuri Gagarin" – 7:03
  3. "Rosenmontag" – 8:01
  4. "Committed (Extended Version)" – 5:34

Note:

  • Track 1 was an edit newly created for the U.S. market and seems to be exclusive to this U.S. 12".

    • References

    Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA