Every New Zealand #1 single…
9
19 by Paul Hardcastle
Topped the NZ chart: for 5 weeks from 7 July 1985.
I was surprised that there’s a 5-week number-one hit from the 1980s that I’d never heard before. But I’d never listened to this synth-pop tune before. It chronicles the Vietnam War, based on Hardcastle’s realisation that the average age of soldiers in Vietnam was 19.
“…what struck me was how young the soldiers were: the documentary said their average age was 19. I was out having fun in pubs and clubs when I was 19, not being shoved into jungles and shot at.”
Paul Hardcastle,
The song uses sampling technology, still in its infancy at the time. The E-mu Emulator could only play two-second samples, hence the short stuttering “n-n-n-nineteen” sample.
The song wasn’t expected to make an impact. Hardcastle’s previous singles had been unsuccessful. But the song’s release date, around the tenth anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end, helped pique media interest.
Paul Hardcastle’s released dozens of albums, ranging from smooth jazz to synth-pop. But ’19’ has remained his signature tune. It’s buoyant and tuneful, despite the dark overtones of the voiceover. Despite the dated technology, it’s retained a lot of its power.
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The song itself wasn’t my cup of tea but the video was very moving.
I think this remains a fairly powerful #1 thanks to the subject matter, despite the now pretty dated production. It was a huge hit in the UK too.
Yeah, it’s a time capsule but it’s still good. The voiceovers are powerful.
I took a deeper look at 19 in my classic song series last year. Clever song and concept. As for the song’s famous stutter (N-n-n-nineteen), it was created using an early type of sampler called an Emu Emulator.
The E-mu Emulator sounds Australian!
Hahaha, it does, doesn’t it!
I heard this song back then. Full Metal Jacket and Platoon revived the war also a year or two after this. I remember in 1984…I was young but raised a democrat…the democrats wanted to reinstate the draft…that is when I stopped going with parties alone.
I didn’t know about the draft coming back in the 1980s. The 1984 election was the one where the Republicans won almost every state, right?
Yes…it might have been one of the most one sided ever. I couldn’t understand why democrats…of all parties wanted to bring that back.
Thats when I started to question both sides….not just republicans.
N-n-n-n-nineteen. Loved this track back in the day.
I’d never heard it before – I guess it didn’t fit the radio formats in New Zealand.
The retro radio stations I mean – I was a tiny bit young at the time it came out.
I was a bit young too, definitely younger than n-n-n-n-nineteen. (Sorry, had to be done.) I was in grade school at the time, just starting to branch out from parents even more retro tastes.
I was 5, my parents didn’t really play any kind of radio that would play that song.