Siouxsie & The Banshees Israel (very rare 7 inch promo 1980)

"Israel" is a song by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released as a stand-alone single in 1980 by Polydor Records. The track was written by Siouxsie and the Banshees and co-produced with Nigel Gray, it featured a 30 singer Welsh choir on backing vocals. While touring in Europe in Autumn 1980, the band wanted to write a Christmas song to be released on time for December of that year. They composed it on the road, which was quite unusual for them. The song became a favourite of several artists including Air's composer Jean-Benoît Dunckel who selected as one of his 10 all-time favourite songs, and the band Ride who selected it as a song of their intro tape during their tours, and producer Howie B. (a frequent collaborator of Björk and Tricky in the 1990s) who included it in a list of songs, representing the music he listened to when he grew up in Glasgow. "Israel" was released as a stand-alone single in between the albums Kaleidoscope (1980) and Juju (1981) on 28 November 1980 by record label Polydor. It peaked at No. 41 on the UK Singles Chart.[6] It was the band's first single to be also released on a 12-inch although the track lengths on both sides of the 12-inch edition were the same as on the 7-inch. Although it reached No. 73 on the US National Disco Action Top 100 chart as an import, "Israel" did not appear on a Siouxsie and the Banshees album until the release of the Once Upon a Time/The Singles compilation the following year, although some copies of the US release of Juju on PVC Records included a free copy of this single. The song was remastered in 2002 for the compilation CD The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees and was also featured as a bonus track on the 2006 Kaleidoscope reissue.

Added 22 May 2026