The Final Countdown - Live Version

This song's lyric is both apocalyptic and optimistic, describing a trip into Space (heading for Venus) and leaving Earth behind. When we asked Europe lead singer Joey Tempest about it, he explained: "I had the demo without vocals, and I was singing it over and over again. The music was almost like a soundtrack to a movie, about leaving Earth, and that the Earth was spent. And one day, we'll probably have to leave this place. It was kind of a dream-like lyric, but that was the backdrop for it."

The iconic keyboard riff was composed by lead singer Joey Tempest five years before the song was recorded. The band's keyboard player Mic Michaeli had lent him the instrument.

On VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders, Joey Tempest said: "It was quite a surprise that the song 'The Final Countdown' became such a big hit because it was written for the band, it was written for our concert, it was written to be the opening song in our concert. It was almost six-minutes long, it was never intended to be a short pop hit or anything, it was very much a surprise and its been used for all kinds of events, anything from Formula 1 to boxing. It's been used for a lot, sort of like an anthem. I know there's been some cover versions of it as well and I know when the Berlin Wall (fell), at the same time that all thing happened I know a lot of other people from that area saw the song as an anthem. I get a lot of letters about that. So its been interpreted in many ways."