Oxygene (Part IV)

"Oxygene (Part IV)" is 4:14 on the album and 3:30 as a single, released in January 1977 (February per French Wikipedia) on Disques Motors and Polydor with Part VI on the B-side, and in the UK on August 19, 1977. It opens with wind-like noise from an EMS VCS 3 and layers sequences; the drums are two Korg Mini-Pops 7 presets, rock and slow rock, played together by taping down buttons, which Jarre called a mixture of slow rock and rock; the strings come from the VCS 3 and an Eminent 310 Unique through a Small Stone phaser, Michel Geiss programmed the main sound on the ARP 2600, and it is in Dorian mode. Wikipedia says it drew on Gershon Kingsley's "Popcorn", which Jarre had covered in 1972 under pseudonyms, and the Telegraph reported rumors that a 1974 jingle for the A4 autoroute was an earlier incarnation, but Jarre's own account of what it is about was not found.

It reached number four in the UK in September 1977, with Radio 1 airplay helping, number one in Wallonia and Spain, number four on the Dutch Top 40, three in Belgium's Flanders, 16 in Germany, seven in Ireland, six in New Zealand and 26 in Australia; a 1989 remix reached 65 in the UK, with a video of a penguin march in Antarctica. Europe 1 used it for its Hit Parade and Basket shows, and it was used in advertising for the opening of the A4 motorway. It is heard in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008). MusicRadar ranked it fifth among the greatest synth sounds, and Treble opens its list of 50 essential synth-pop songs with it.

Setlist.fm lists "Oxygene 4" as Jarre's most played song, 236 plays, ahead of "Oxygene 2" (209) and "Equinoxe 4" (187). The 2007 and 2008 Oxygene Live shows performed the whole suite. Which version our upload is, the original, the 2007 re-recording or a live one, has not been established.