"Sister Europe" is a song by English

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 band The Psychedelic Furs from the band's 1980 self-titled debut album

The Psychedelic Furs (album)

The Psychedelic Furs is the debut album by the English rock band The Psychedelic Furs. It was released in 1980 on Columbia Records. It was reissued with bonus tracks in 2002 by Columbia/Legacy....

. Written by the band and produced by Steve Lillywhite

Steve Lillywhite

Steve Lillywhite is an English Grammy Award winning record producer. Since he began his career in 1977, Lillywhite has been credited for working on over 500 records and has collaborated with a variety of musicians including XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dave Matthews Band, U2, Peter Gabriel,...

, it was released in February 1980 as the album's second single.

Composition

Singer Richard Butler

Richard Butler (singer)

Richard Lofthouse Butler is the lead singer of the Psychedelic Furs. He is also the founder and vocalist for the disbanded Love Spit Love.-Musical career:...

 recalled Steve Lillywhite's directions to him regarding the vocals: "He told me, 'Go down to the pub, have a couple of beers, and when you come back, I want you to sing like it's three in the morning, and you're talking on the telephone to someone'".
According to Butler, the lyrics conveyed sadness over his then-girlfriend moving away, and were written using imagery, "instead of saying 'My bird's gone to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and I miss her'".

Reception

The Psychedelic Furs traditionally opened their live shows with "Sister Europe" during the early part of their career. The single reached number 47 on the New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 charts.
Writer Alex Ogg called it "an intoxicating song that announced the group's distinctive style", comparing it to The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...

 mixed with David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

.
Allmusic writer Dave Thompson

Dave Thompson (author)

Dave Thompson is the British born author of over 100 books, largely dealing with rock and pop music, but also covering film, sports, philately, numismatics and erotica....

 described Butler's vocal as "a masterpiece of understatement, whispered intimacy".

Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 tenor

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

 saxophonist

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 Gary Windo

Gary Windo

Gary Windo was a jazz tenor saxophonist.He came from a musical family in England and by age six took up drums and accordion, then guitar at 12, and finally saxophone at 17. He lived in the United States in the 1960s, but returned to England in 1969...

 performed a cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of the song on his 1985 album Deep Water.
Iva Davies

Iva Davies

Iva Davies , is the frontman for Australian electro/new wave/rock band Icehouse.-Biography:...

 and Icehouse

Icehouse (band)

Icehouse is an Australian rock band, formed as Flowers in 1977 in Sydney. Initially known in Australia for their pub rock style, they later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synthpop style music and attained Top Ten singles chart success in both Europe and the U.S...

 recorded their rendition on the 1995 album Berlin

The Berlin Tapes (album)

The Berlin Tapes is a covers / soundtrack album by Australian rock musician Iva Davies and his band Icehouse. The record was a collaboration between Davies and classical music composer Max Lambert to accompany the Sydney Dance Company's production of the ballet "Berlin", for which Icehouse...

.
Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...

 released a cover of "Sister Europe" as the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 to the 2002 single "All My Life

All My Life (Foo Fighters song)

"All My Life" is a song by the American alternative rock band Foo Fighters, released as the first single from their fourth album, One by One...

".
This version also appeared as a bonus track on the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 version of the band's One by One album.

Track listing

7" Vinyl

1. "Sister Europe" - 4:13
2. "****" - 2:40

12" Vinyl (UK Promo)

1. "Sister Europe" - 5:39
2. "We Love You" - 3:26

Chart performance

Chart (1980)	Peak position
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...	47