tour de france song 1983

Tour de France (song)

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" Tour de France " is a song by German electronic band Kraftwerk . It was first issued in early August 1983, peaking at number 22 in the United Kingdom singles chart on 6 August.

Tour de France

• Edit source

" Tour de France " is a song by Kraftwerk . It was first issued in June 1983, peaking at number 22 in the UK singles chart. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk have used on earlier tracks such as " Metal on Metal " (from Trans-Europe Express ) and " Numbers " (from Computer World ). The music is credited to Ralf Hütter , Florian Schneider and Karl Bartos ; the lyrics are credited to Ralf Hütter and Maxime Schmitt, a French label associate of the band. The melody appears to quote a fragment of the opening section of Paul Hindemith 's “Sonata for Flute and Piano” (“Heiter Bewegt”).

For Kraftwerk, Tour De France was a departure from the technological tone of the two previous albums, The Man-Machine and Computer World . Instead, the song is a joie de vivre celebration of cycling, marking the group's increasing interest in the sport. Of the current line-up, Ralf Hütter and Fritz Hilpert have been known to take part in cycling events.

The track was originally recorded with the intention of being included on the subsequently abandoned Techno Pop album. The single was originally released on seven and twelve inch vinyl, and as a cassette-single. It has the most complicated set of variants of any Kraftwerk song, having been variously edited and remixed to the point that there is no completely definitive version.

The sleeve design depicted the band on road bikes in a paceline , superimposed across an angled representation of the French national flag. The design was adapted from an image that had appeared on a 1953 Hungarian postage stamp, one of a sport-themed set commemorating the opening the Népstadion (People's Stadium) in Budapest.

The piece was also included in the 1984 film Breakin' , also known as Breakdance internationally. Although the song did appear briefly in the film, Kraftwerk did not let the song appear on the movie soundtrack; instead, a cover version of the song was released by a group called "10 Speed".

• 1.1 Original release
• 1.2 Remix release
• 1.3 Digital remaster
• 1.4 Final version
• 2.1 UK 12-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.2 UK 7-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.3 UK cassette, 1983
• 2.4 US 12-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.5 UK 12-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.6 UK 7-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.7 German 12-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.8 German 7-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.9 German 12-inch vinyl, 1984 (1)
• 2.10 German 12-inch vinyl, 1984 (2)
• 2.11 German 7-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.12 EU 12-inch vinyl, 1999

Releases [ ]

Original release [ ].

In Germany it was released in both German and French language versions, one on each side of the vinyl disc, but in other countries the versions of the song that were issued were sung only in French. Typically, the seven inch sides were edited down versions of the longer tracks released on twelve inch singles. In the UK however the seven inch B side was an instrumental edit of the A side track; an additional instrumental track of percussion and samples, "Tour de France, Étape 2", was included on the UK twelve inch and cassette releases.

Remix release [ ]

In August 1984, the song was re-released in two new versions: a substantially different and largely instrumental arrangement, remixed by François Kevorkian in New York; and a Kraftwerk-remixed alternative version of the original arrangement, featuring longer percussive sections than the 1983 version in the latter half of the track. Sleeves for later UK pressings of this version included the message "As featured in the film Breakdance" on the front. The remix reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart and number 4 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

Digital remaster [ ]

In 1999, the recordings were digitally remastered and released yet again, this time as a CD and a twelve-inch single, with a slightly modified version of the original cover design: the faces of former members Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür , who had left the band by 1999, were replaced by faces presumably representing current members Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz .

The 1999 vinyl twelve-inch had the 1984 Kraftwerk remix as the A side (now sub-titled "Kling Klang Analog Mix") and the Kevorkian version as the B side (re-titled "Remix François K"). The CD also included the 1983 seven-inch single edited mix of the song (re-titled "Radio Version") and a QuickTime format file of the video, featuring an edited version of the 1984 Kraftwerk remix with German lyrics ("Multi-Media-Track") over an amended video. The video itself was re-edited to remove sequences showing the 1983 incarnation of the band and now comprised only archive footage of Tour de France cyclists, such as the Italian champion Fausto Coppi and the French champion Jacques Anquetil .

Final version [ ]

A completely new recording was made for the 2003 album Tour de France Soundtracks , based on the original 1983 arrangement.

Track listing [ ]

• 1 Kling Klang Studio
• 2 Ralf Hütter
• 3 Radioactivity

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Tour De France by Kraftwerk

• The hell of Northern Paris - Roubaix The Cote d'Azur and Saint Tropez The Alps and the Pyrenees Last stage Champs-Elysees Galibier and Tourmalet Dancing even on the top Bicycling at high gear Final sprint at the finish Flat tire on the paving-stones The bicycle is repaired quickly The peloton is regrouped Comrades and friendship Writer/s: FLORIAN SCHNEIDER-ESLEBEN, FRITZ HILPERT, MAXIME SCHMITT, RALF HUETTER Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc. Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
• More songs from Kraftwerk
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• More songs from 1983
• Tour De France Songfacts
• Kraftwerk Artistfacts

Comments: 1

• Chris from Germany Kraftwerk were ahead of their time and had a lot of good songs before they released Tour De France in 1983. They intended to release Techno Pop in 1983 and they had still made videos and promotions. There were also ads in music magazines. However many problems and such things caused the band to not release the album. The songs were recycled for their 1986 album Electric Cafe. Tour De France is awesome and really catchy. In 1983 they had a lot of competition with synth pop bands but they were still good and innovative. The Francoise Kevorkian remix of the song is one of the best. The song was released in 1983 and had minor success but it was a household name among the breakdance scene and so the song was rereleased in the 1980s.

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Tour de France

• Edit source

" Tour de France " is a song by  Kraftwerk . It was first issued in June 1983, peaking at number 22 in the UK singles chart. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk had used on earlier tracks such as "Metal on Metal" (from  Trans-Europe Express ) and "Numbers" (from  Computer World ). The music is credited to  Ralf Hütter ,  Florian Schneider  and  Karl Bartos ; the lyrics are credited to  Ralf Hütter  and Maxime Schmitt, a French label associate of the band. The melody appears to quote a fragment of the opening section of  Paul Hindemith 's “Sonata for Flute and Piano” (“Heiter Bewegt”).

[1] The 1953  Hungarian  postage stamp that formed the basis for the cycling motif

For Kraftwerk, "Tour de France" was a departure from the technological tone of the two previous albums,  The Man-Machine  and  Computer World . Instead, the song is a  joie de vivre  celebration of cycling, marking the group's increasing interest in the sport. Of the current line-up,  Ralf Hütter  and  Fritz Hilpert  have been known to take part in cycling events.

The track was originally recorded with the intention of being included on the subsequently abandoned  Techno Pop album. The single was originally released on seven and twelve inch vinyl, and as a cassette-single. It has the most complicated set of variants of any Kraftwerk song, having been variously edited and remixed to the point that there is no completely definitive version.

The sleeve design depicted the band on  road bikes  in a  paceline , superimposed across an angled representation of the French national flag. The design was adapted from an image that had appeared on a 1953 Hungarian postage stamp, one of a sport-themed set commemorating the opening the  Népstadion  (People's Stadium) in  Budapest .

The piece was also included in the 1984 film  Breakin' , also known as  Breakdance  internationally. Although the song did appear briefly in the film, Kraftwerk did not let the song appear on the movie soundtrack; instead, a cover version of the song was released by a group called "10 Speed".

• 2.1 Original release [ edit ]
• 2.2 Remix release [ edit ]
• 2.3 Digital remaster [ edit ]
• 2.4 Final version [ edit ]
• 3.1 UK 12-inch vinyl, 1983 [ edit ]
• 3.2 UK 7-inch vinyl, 1983 [ edit ]
• 3.3 UK cassette, 1983 [ edit ]
• 3.4 US 12-inch vinyl, 1984 [ edit ]
• 3.5 UK 12-inch vinyl, 1984 [ edit ]
• 3.6 UK 7-inch vinyl, 1984 [ edit ]
• 3.7 German 12-inch vinyl, 1983 [ edit ]
• 3.8 German 7-inch vinyl, 1983 [ edit ]
• 3.9 German 12-inch vinyl, 1984 (1) [ edit ]
• 3.10 German 12-inch vinyl, 1984 (2) [ edit ]
• 3.11 German 7-inch vinyl, 1984 [ edit ]
• 3.12 EU 12-inch vinyl, 1999 [ edit ]
• 4 Charts [ edit ]

Contents [ ]

 [ hide ]  * 1 Releases

• 1.1 Original release
• 1.2 Remix release
• 1.3 Digital remaster
• 1.4 Final version
• 2.1 UK 12-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.2 UK 7-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.3 UK cassette, 1983
• 2.4 US 12-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.5 UK 12-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.6 UK 7-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.7 German 12-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.8 German 7-inch vinyl, 1983
• 2.9 German 12-inch vinyl, 1984 (1)
• 2.10 German 12-inch vinyl, 1984 (2)
• 2.11 German 7-inch vinyl, 1984
• 2.12 EU 12-inch vinyl, 1999
• 3 Charts

Releases [ edit ] [ ]

Original release [ edit ] [ ].

In Germany it was released in both German and French language versions, one on each side of the vinyl disc, but in other countries the versions of the song that were issued were sung only in French. Typically, the seven inch sides were edited down versions of the longer tracks released on twelve inch singles. In the UK however the seven inch B side was an instrumental edit of the A side track; an additional instrumental track of percussion and samples, "Tour de France, Étape 2", was included on the UK twelve inch and cassette releases.

Remix release [ edit ] [ ]

In August 1984, the song was re-released in two new versions: a substantially different and largely instrumental arrangement, remixed by  François Kevorkian  in New York; and a Kraftwerk-remixed alternative version of the original arrangement, featuring longer percussive sections than the 1983 version in the latter half of the track. Sleeves for later UK pressings of this version included the message "As featured in the film Breakdance" on the front. The remix reached number 24 on the  UK Singles Chart  and number 4 on the US  Hot Dance Music/Club Play  chart.

Digital remaster [ edit ] [ ]

In 1999, the recordings were digitally remastered and released yet again, this time as a CD and a twelve-inch single, with a slightly modified version of the original cover design: the faces of former members Karl Bartos  and  Wolfgang Flür , who had left the band by 1999, were replaced by faces presumably representing current members  Fritz Hilpert  and  Henning Schmitz .

The 1999 vinyl twelve-inch had the 1984 Kraftwerk remix as the A side (now sub-titled "Kling Klang Analog Mix") and the Kevorkian version as the B side (re-titled "Remix François K"). The CD also included the 1983 seven-inch single edited mix of the song (re-titled "Radio Version") and a  QuickTime  format file of the video, featuring an edited version of the 1984 Kraftwerk remix with German lyrics ("Multi-Media-Track") over an amended video. The video itself was re-edited to remove sequences showing the 1983 incarnation of the band and now comprised only archive footage of  Tour de France  cyclists, such as the Italian champion  Fausto Coppi  and the French champion  Jacques Anquetil .

Final version [ edit ] [ ]

A completely new recording was made for the 2003 album  Tour de France Soundtracks , based on the original 1983 arrangement.

Track listing [ edit ] [ ]

Charts [ edit ] [ ].

• 1 Ayesha Erotica
• 2 Melanie Martinez
• 3 Retard-O-Bot

• ABBREVIATIONS
• BIOGRAPHIES
• CALCULATORS
• CONVERSIONS
• DEFINITIONS

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Tour de France

About Tour de France

"Tour de France" is a song by Kraftwerk. It was first issued in June 1983, peaking at number 22 in the United Kingdom singles chart. It is notable for the use of sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling that were used to supplement a simple electro-percussion pattern – an approach Kraftwerk had used on earlier tracks such as "Metal on Metal" (from Trans-Europe Express) and "Numbers" (from Computer World). The music is credited to Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider and Karl Bartos; the lyrics are credited to Hütter and Maxime Schmitt, a French label associate of the band. The melody appears to quote a fragment of the opening section of Paul Hindemith's “Sonata for Flute and Piano” (“Heiter Bewegt”). For Kraftwerk, "Tour de France" was a departure from the technological tone of the two previous albums, The Man-Machine and Computer World. Instead, the song is a joie de vivre celebration of cycling, marking the group's increasing interest in the sport. Of the current line-up, Hütter and Fritz Hilpert have been known to take part in cycling events.   more »

 The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.com

Kraftwerk (German pronunciation: [ˈkʀaftvɛɐk], meaning power station) from Düsseldorf, Germany, is an influential electronic music project that was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western Classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music and are considered pioneers in the field. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary, and… more »

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Written by: FRITZ HILPERT, RALF HUETTER, MAXIME SCHMITT, FLORIAN SCHNEIDER-ESLEBEN

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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‘Tour De France Soundtracks’: Kraftwerk’s Gear-Changing Final Album

Recorded to mark the 100th year of the iconic cycling tournament, Kraftwerk’s ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ remains an enduring swansong.

Finally inspired to record an album of all-new material for the first time in 17 years, Kraftwerk’s 11th studio outing, Tour De France Soundtracks , found the group in an entirely different musical landscape from when they released their previous album, 1986’s Electric Café . By this point, electronic dance music had swept the world to become a cultural phenomenon, largely thanks to the pioneering synthesiser work Kraftwerk had originally set in motion in the 70s.

Listen to ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ here .

Keen to keep the wheels moving despite the departures of long-term members Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Flür, group founders Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider invited Fritz Hilpert and Henning Schmitz into the fold and set to work on a new album that coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Tour De France. Spinning out ideas from his fondness for cycling, Hütter was keen to explore the feats of human endurance achieved by the likes of tournament winners Fausto Coppi and Louison Bobet, and headed to Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang studio to engineer the group’s much-anticipated comeback.

“Forward – that’s what you do with your bicycle. You move forward”

Remarkably, the genesis of Tour De France Soundtracks stretched back 20 years earlier, when Kraftwerk released an EP celebrating Hütter’s love of cycling. “In 1983 we were working on a concept for a feature film on Tour De France,” Hütter said, “so I wrote some lyrics and conceptual ideas for our album Tour De France .” No strangers to exploring modes of transportation on records such as the motorway-centric Autobahn and the train-inspired Trans-Europe Express , the original 1983 Tour De France song hinted at a new Lycra-clad reinvention for the one-time robots, and reached No.22 in the UK in August that year. Following a bike accident which landed Hütter in hospital, however, the album idea was put on hold and Kraftwerk moved on to record Electric Café instead.

Then, in 2003, in a bid to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tour De France tournament, Kraftwerk decided to revisit the cycling concept. Updated for the 21st century, the group’s cycling song was just as innovative as anything they had done before, with Hütter’s breathless vocals being recorded after running up and down the stairs in Kling Klang. Propelled by a winding electro beat and the sound of spinning spokes, this new version of Tour De France peaked at No.20 in the UK in July 2003 and saw Hütter recite French lyrics evoking the arduous journey of cyclists traversing the Alps.

After the group successfully fleshed out the concept into a full album, Tour De France Soundtracks finally saw light of day on 4 August 2003 and proved Kraftwerk’s momentum had only accelerated in line with the new era of electronic dance music they had helped usher in. With pristine ambient soundscapes and the throb of trance-enamoured synths, the wheels are set in motion on Prologue before leading into the glorious Tour De France (Étape 1-3), a 15-minute trio of tracks acting as an odyssey of perpetual motion. “We are very interested in the dynamics and the energy and the movement,” Hütter said. “The German word is ‘vorwärts’, forward – that’s what you do with your bicycle. You move forward.”

“It’s percussive and dynamic. We never feel there’s nowhere left for us to go”

By aiming “to glorify the muscles of the human being” with a freewheeling sonic tone poem aided by Kraftwerk’s machine-like rhythms, Tour De France Soundtracks captured the trials of any hardened cyclist with their eyes on the prize. “The noise of the bicycle chain and pedal and gear mechanism,” Hütter said, “the breathing of the cyclist, we have incorporated all this in the Kraftwerk sound.” As an ode to sports endurance, the group even found room to explore health supplements, on the song Vitamin, as well as the metal that comprises the bicycle itself, on Titanium.

Seeing the human body as a machine, the album’s second single, Elektro Kardiogramm, continued to look at health and fitness by building a beat around Ralf Hütter’s pulse. “We took medical tests I did over a couple of years, heartbeat recordings, pulse frequencies, lung volume tests, and used those tests on the album,” Hütter said. “It’s percussive and dynamic. We never feel there’s nowhere left for us to go.” Released in October 2003, the song brilliantly reflects a cyclist’s commitment to reaching the peak physical performance necessary to complete the Tour De France’s various stages.

Given Kraftwerk’s role as sonic innovators who paved the way for dance music – particularly the rise of genres such as house and trance – it’s perhaps unsurprising that Tour De France Soundtracks shares much in common with contemporary EDM. Unlike most nightclub DJs, however, Kraftwerk saw an artistic opportunity to use the mesmeric quality of those styles of music to mirror the flow state of cyclists on the move. “The Tour is like life: a form of trance,” Hütter said. “Trance always belongs to repetition, and everybody is looking for trance in life… in sex, in the emotional, in pleasure, in anything… so the machines produce an absolutely perfect trance.”

“Cycling is the man machine. It’s me, the man machine on the bicycle”

Tour De France Soundtracks’ third single, Aerodynamik, was released in March 2004. A shimmering five-minute minimal techno song about battling headwinds, it peaked at No.33 in the UK, its synth blips, pulsing rhythms and bubbling vocoder vocal offering a reminder of the divine synchronicity between man and machine, cyclist and bicycle. “Cycling is the man-machine,” Ralf Hütter once said, explaining elsewhere: “It’s me, the man machine on the bicycle.” With this in mind, it’s clear that Tour De France Soundtracks fits perfectly among Kraftwerk’s work, chiming with their commitment to opening our eyes to how humanity can be enhanced by technology.

Another of Tour De France Soundtracks ’ notable moments, La Forme – later to be remixed by Hot Chip in 2007 – can also be seen through this prism. One of the best Kraftwerk songs, it praises physical fitness and celebrates the fusion of a cyclist’s muscle movement with the mechanics of cycling itself. “When we worked on this album,” Hütter explained, “we tried to incorporate the idea of very smooth, rolling, gliding.” As a whole, Tour De France Soundtracks is best seen as a breezy soundscape that perfectly captures the process of cycling through challenging terrains better than any TV sports commentator can express. “Watch a ride through the mountains, switch off the sound and play our CD: you will be amazed,” Hütter said.

To this day, Tour De France Soundtracks is the last album of new studio material released by Kraftwerk. Not only did it peak at No.1 in Germany – the group’s highest chart placement in their homeland – but it also made an impression in the UK, reaching No.21 and proving that Kraftwerk’s decades-long standing as the godfathers of electro-pop was beyond doubt. Finding the group as forward-thinking as ever, Tour De France Soundtracks released the breaks and gifted us with yet another tour de force.

“We are still here,” Ralf Hütter said a year later, when asked what he was most proud of. “And we are still moving forward.”

Find out more about Kraftwerk’s pioneering electro legacy .

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