"Sounds Like a Melody" is a song by West German

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

/synthpop

Synthpop

Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...

 group Alphaville

Alphaville (band)

Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold , Bernhard Lloyd , and Frank Mertens Alphaville is a German synthpop group which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were Marian Gold (real name Hartwig Schierbaum,...

, from the group's debut album Forever Young. The single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 was released on May 14, 1984.

In Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, the song topped the very first Tracks ever on September 8, 1984.

Unlike most pop music, where song structure is focused on vocal melodies with alternating stanza

Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...

s, this song also includes an 8-bar instrumental synthesizer melody which is heard once at the beginning, is followed by a verse-chorus-verse structure, and then repeats for almost 1 minute to end the song.

Track listings

7" Single WEA

1. "Sounds Like a Melody" — 4:29
2. "The Nelson Highrise Sector One: the Elevator" — 3:14

12" Maxi WEA

1. "Sounds Like a Melody (Special Long Version)" — 7:42
2. "The Nelson Highrise Sector One: the Elevator" — 4:12

• The 7" version is a completely new studio recording from the album version
• The B-side is commonly referred to simply as "The Elevator," and a remix appears on 1999's Dreamscapes
  Dreamscapes
  Dreamscapes is a limited edition eight-CD set of rare Alphaville recordings, released in 1999. It features 124 tracks with a total playing time of around 9.5 hours...
  
  .

Other releases

• In 1999's Dreamscapes, Alphaville included an early demo of this song as well as a reggae-inspired live version recorded in 1997
• 2001's Forever Pop
  Forever Pop
  Forever Pop is a collection of new remixes of older Alphaville songs and singles. The people responsible for some of the remixes include notables such as Paul Van Dyk, Mark Plati, and De-Phazz.-Reviews:...
  
  includes a new remix (the "Staggman Mix")
• 2003's CrazyShow
  CrazyShow
  CrazyShow is a limited-edition four-CD album by Alphaville, composed of new material as wellas rare and remixed tracks, and three cover versions...
  
  includes another new remix ("MaXx Mystery's 80's Remix")

The Nelson Highrise

This single contains the first of 4 songs that Alphaville have designated a "Nelson Highrise Sector:"

• The Nelson Highrise Sector 2 is "The Other Side of U," the B-side to 1986's single "Dance with Me
  Dance with Me (Alphaville song)
  "Dance with Me" is the first of five singles from Alphaville's second album, Afternoons in Utopia. It was released in March 1986, ahead of the album.-Reviews:...
  
  "
• The Nelson Highrise Sector 3 is "The Garage," the B-side to two 1986 singles, "Jerusalem
  Jerusalem (Alphaville song)
  Jerusalem is third single from Alphaville's album Afternoons in Utopia. It is their seventh single overall. It was released only in Germany in November 1986.-Song development:...
  
  " and "Sensations"
• The Nelson Highrise Sector 4 is "The Scum of the Earth," from 2003's CrazyShow

Certifications

Charts

Chart (1984–1985)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	3
French SNEP Singles Chart	10
German Singles Chart	3
Norwegian Singles Chart	5
Swedish Singles Chart	1
Swiss Singles Chart	4

End of year chart (1984)	Position
Austrian Singles Chart	19
Swiss Singles Chart	15

Cover versions

Parts of this song sometimes appear in dance music. In 1993 a eurodance

Eurodance

Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...

 duo Cappella

Cappella

Cappella was an Italian Eurodance act formed in 1987 by producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. The act went through a number of line-up changes over the years but was most successful in the early 1990s when it was fronted by British performers Kelly Overett and Rodney Bishop...

 made a club hit "U Got 2 Let the Music

U Got 2 Let the Music

"U Got 2 Let the Music" is a 1993 song recorded by the Italian eurodance, house and techno group Cappella. The song was released as single in early 1994 and was the second from their second album U Got 2 Know....

" by sampling this song.

DJ Doo's "The Beginning" is based on the riff

RIFF

The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....

which closes "Sounds Like a Melody."

The dance group Lichtenfels and the European group Vanity Affair both covered this song as well, while the German alternative/hard rock band A Life Divided recorded a cover of the song for their recent album "Passenger".