"Victoria" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by The Dance Exponents | ||||
from the album Prayers Be Answered | ||||
Released | June 1982 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 3:26 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jordan Luck | |||
The Dance Exponents singles chronology | ||||
|
"Victoria" is a song by the New Zealand rock band The Exponents from the band's 1982 album Prayers Be Answered. Released in June 1982 as the band's first single, it reached Number 6 on the New Zealand singles chart. [1] The song was selected by a panel of New Zealand songwriters to have been the #8 top 100 New Zealand songs of all time.
"Victoria" was inspired by Jordan Luck's landlady in Christchurch, with the name Victoria used as a pseudonym (her real name was Vicky). [2] She successfully ran an escort agency but lived with an abusive man: Luck questioned her relationship with the line "What do you see in him?".
"Victoria was 23 and earned [sic] the whole apartment block. She was a hard worker. And yes, she read Alvin Toffler. But we'd wake up in the morning and she'd be bruised because her boyfriend was beating her up."
— Jordan Luck, New Zealand Herald [3]
The band moved to Auckland before the release of the song. After the single became a success, Luck visited "Victoria" in Christchurch and was happy to find that she not only loved the song but had also split up with her abusive boyfriend. [4]
A video was funded by the New Zealand Broadcasting Association but, unusually for the time, included a story rather than just a studio performance. Shot in the band's hometown of Christchurch, it shows Luck as "Victoria"'s taxi driver [5] and Al Park, [6] a singer-songwriter sometimes credited as the father figure for the "Lyttelton Sound" and the first person to bring punk music to Christchurch. [7] In 2019, Luck covered Park's "I Walked Away" for the covers collection Better Already - The Songs Of Al Park. [8]
The recording of "Victoria" on the Prayers Be Answered album differs from the original single. Another version was also included on the 1985 Amplifier album.
Chart (1982) | Peak position |
---|---|
New Zealand ( Recorded Music NZ) [9] | 6 |
"Victoria" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by The Dance Exponents | ||||
from the album Prayers Be Answered | ||||
Released | June 1982 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 3:26 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jordan Luck | |||
The Dance Exponents singles chronology | ||||
|
"Victoria" is a song by the New Zealand rock band The Exponents from the band's 1982 album Prayers Be Answered. Released in June 1982 as the band's first single, it reached Number 6 on the New Zealand singles chart. [1] The song was selected by a panel of New Zealand songwriters to have been the #8 top 100 New Zealand songs of all time.
"Victoria" was inspired by Jordan Luck's landlady in Christchurch, with the name Victoria used as a pseudonym (her real name was Vicky). [2] She successfully ran an escort agency but lived with an abusive man: Luck questioned her relationship with the line "What do you see in him?".
"Victoria was 23 and earned [sic] the whole apartment block. She was a hard worker. And yes, she read Alvin Toffler. But we'd wake up in the morning and she'd be bruised because her boyfriend was beating her up."
— Jordan Luck, New Zealand Herald [3]
The band moved to Auckland before the release of the song. After the single became a success, Luck visited "Victoria" in Christchurch and was happy to find that she not only loved the song but had also split up with her abusive boyfriend. [4]
A video was funded by the New Zealand Broadcasting Association but, unusually for the time, included a story rather than just a studio performance. Shot in the band's hometown of Christchurch, it shows Luck as "Victoria"'s taxi driver [5] and Al Park, [6] a singer-songwriter sometimes credited as the father figure for the "Lyttelton Sound" and the first person to bring punk music to Christchurch. [7] In 2019, Luck covered Park's "I Walked Away" for the covers collection Better Already - The Songs Of Al Park. [8]
The recording of "Victoria" on the Prayers Be Answered album differs from the original single. Another version was also included on the 1985 Amplifier album.
Chart (1982) | Peak position |
---|---|
New Zealand ( Recorded Music NZ) [9] | 6 |