Album · Rational Youth
Cold War Night Life by Rational Youth
Cold War Night Life is an album by Rational Youth, released in 1982. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 2 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Dancing on the Berlin Wall”, on 1 list with a best position of #180.
Cold War Night Life, Rational Youth's 1982 debut, is synth-pop with a chill in the air, all icy keyboards, sequenced pulses and songs that feel like they were written under the grey sky of a divided Europe. It holds the band's best-known song, "Saturdays in Silesia", along with "Dancing on the Berlin Wall".
The album slipped out of print for years, until an e-mail campaign by fans persuaded EMI to reissue it on CD in 1997; in 2019 Universal Music Canada brought it back again as a deluxe 2-LP and CD set. Its reach runs deep: an online magazine and record label took its name, and in 2017 that label released Heresy, a tribute on which electronic artists from Canada, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Norway and the UK covered its songs.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Cold War Night Life on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dancing on the Berlin Wall | 1 | #180 | – | 1988 | |
| 2 | Saturdays In Silesia | 1 | #932 | – | 1991 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.