The Best of OMD is a compilation album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are a synthpop group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England...

, released in 1988. Despite the band's waning popularity both in the UK and abroad, it sold extremely well.

The version of "Electricity

Electricity (OMD song)

"Electricity" is the debut single of the New Wave and synthpop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. It is notable for having been recorded numerous times. The earliest versions are live recordings by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys' previous group The Id. The song is one of the OMD's most...

" used is the same as the one featured on their debut album

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (album)

-U.S. release :The U.S. version, released in 1981, collects material from the first two OMD albums, but retains the sleeve-art of the debut LP. -Remastered CD release with bonus tracks:Virgin / DIDCDR2 -Notes:...

 (which itself is the band reworking Martin Hannett

Martin Hannett

Martin Hannett , sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was a record producer and an original partner in Factory Records with Tony Wilson...

's original Factory version

Factory Records

Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside and James and...

). The band was originally going to use their very first version of this song, but found the drumming to be inferior and so settled for the remix of the track instead. "Messages" is the more popular 10" single version. "Tesla Girls" and "Talking Loud and Clear" are both 7" edited versions. The Australian version of the album featured "We Love You" since that song had been a popular hit there.

"Dreaming" was released as a single to promote the album. It made little impact on the UK charts, reaching only number 50, but it was a big hit in the US (#16) and in Germany reaching #26.

The CD, MiniDisc

MiniDisc

The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...

 and DCC

Digital Compact Cassette

Digital Compact Cassette was a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita in late 1992 and pitched as a successor to the standard analog cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Sony's MiniDisc but neither format toppled the then ubiquitous analog cassette...

 versions of the album are resequenced and feature four extra tracks not present on the LP version: "Telegraph" (a unique mix differing from the album version), "Genetic Engineering", and 12" versions of "La Femme Accident" and "We Love You". There was also a video compilation released with the promo videos of some of the songs featured on the album.

Track listing

All songs written by OMD, except "Locomotion" written by OMD and Gordian Troeller. "So in Love

So in Love (OMD song)

"So in Love" is a song by the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1985 as the first single of the album Crush. The artwork, designed by XL Design, and the promo video were both influenced by the Mexican Day of the Dead festival....

" written by OMD and Stephen Hague

Stephen Hague

Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. He was an influential figure in the synthpop movement.-Early career:...

.

Vinyl LP

LP record

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 and Musicassette

Compact Disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

, MiniDisc

MiniDisc

The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...

 and Digital Compact Cassette

Digital Compact Cassette

Digital Compact Cassette was a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by Philips and Matsushita in late 1992 and pitched as a successor to the standard analog cassette. It was also a direct competitor to Sony's MiniDisc but neither format toppled the then ubiquitous analog cassette...

 

VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 Video

Release history

Country	Date	Format	Label	Cat.no.
UK	1988	LP	Virgin Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...	OMD1
		Musicassette		TCOMD1
		Compact Disc		CD OMD1
		MiniDisc		MD OMD1
		DCC		458604
		VHS		VVD247

Credits

• "Electricity" and "Dreaming" are produced by OMD.
• "Messages", "Enola Gay" and "Souvenir" are produced by OMD and Mike Howlett
  Mike Howlett
  Mike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....
  
  .
• "Joan of Arc" and "Maid of Orleans" are produced by OMD and Richard Manwaring.
• "Telegraph" and "Genetic Engineering" are produced by OMD and Rhett Davies
  Rhett Davies
  Rhett Davies is an English record producer and engineer.Rhett Davies' father was trumpet player Ray Davies; they are no relation to Ray Davies of The Kinks. Davies became a studio engineer at Island Records studios in the early 1970s, and his first session was the recording process for Brian Eno's...
  
  .
• "Tesla Girls", "Locomotion" and "Talking Loud and Clear" are produced by OMD and Brian Tench.
• "So in Love", "Secret", "(Forever) Live and Die", "We Love You" and "La Femme Accident" are produced by Stephen Hague
  Stephen Hague
  Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. He was an influential figure in the synthpop movement.-Early career:...
  
  .
• "If You Leave" is produced by OMD and Tom Lord Alge.