"19" is a song by British musician

Paul Hardcastle Paul Louis Hardcastle (born 10 December 1957) is a British composer, musician, producer, songwriter, radio presenter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for his song " 19", which went to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1985. Early l ...

, released as the first single from his self-titled fourth studio album ''

'' (1985). The song has a strong anti-war message, focusing on the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

' involvement in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and the effect it had on the soldiers who served. The track was notable for early use of sampled and processed speech, in particular a synthesized stutter effect used on the words "nineteen" and "destruction". It also includes various non-speech, re-dubbed sampling, such as crowd noise and a military bugle call. "19" features

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

narration (voiced by Peter Thomas), out-of-context interview dialogue ("I wasn't really sure what was going on") and news reports from '' Vietnam Requiem'' the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

television documentary about the

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats o ...

suffered by Vietnam veterans. In 2009, the song placed at 73 on VH1's ''100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s.'' "19" had huge international success in the charts; it went to No. 1 in the UK for five weeks, as well as a number of other countries worldwide. "19" became the top-selling

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

in 13 countries for 1985. This was helped by international versions of the song spoken by well-known local news anchors in French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The song received the

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been ...

for Best-selling single of 1985. The song's English-language release came in three different 12" versions: "Extended Version", "Destruction Mix" and "The Final Story", all with an alternative cover design.

Background and content

Hardcastle was inspired to create the song after watching '' Vietnam Requiem'', and comparing his own life at 19 to those of the soldiers featured: "...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." The title "19" comes from the documentary's narrative that the average age of an American combat soldier in the war was 19, as compared to 26 in World War II. This claim has since been disputed. Undisputed statistics do not exist, although Southeast Asia Combat Area Casualties Current File (CACCF), the source for the

Vietnam Veterans Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those ...

, shows a large number of deaths (38%) were ages 19 or 20. According to the same source, 23 is the average age at time of death (or time of declaration of death). The song also comments that while the tour of duty was longer during World War II, soldiers in Vietnam were subjected to hostile fire more frequently: "almost every day". Musically, the song was inspired by electro, particularly Afrika Bambaataa, although Hardcastle also "added a bit of jazz and a nice melody", and beyond the sampling of the documentary narration, the song incorporated pieces of interviews with soldiers. The song's pivotal hook, the repetitive "N-n-n-n-nineteen", was chosen due to the limitations of the early sampling technology used. The

E-mu Emulator The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary mu ...

could only sample for two seconds, so the hook was based around "the only bit of the narrative that made sense in two seconds". Hardcastle was not optimistic about the song's chances in the charts. His previous two singles for independent labels had failed to make it into the UK's top 40 and the musical policy at

Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to: *BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC ** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music *CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...

was felt to be unsupportive of

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

. News interest in the song helped, with the tenth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War seeing Hardcastle interviewed by

Alastair Stewart Alastair James Stewart OBE (born 22 June 1952) is an English former journalist and newscaster. Formerly presenting for ITV News, he joined GB News as a presenter in 2021. He has won the Royal Television Society's News Presenter of the Year awa ...

of ITN. Tony Blackburn, then breakfast DJ for Radio London was an early supporter of the song and it quickly reached number 1 in the UK and most of the world. Hardcastle produced different mixes of the song to help maintain interest in it. Although the song only reached number 15 in the United States chart, Hardcastle claims "it outsold everybody else for three weeks solid, it only reached number 15, because back then the chart was based on airplay as well as sales". The song was held back in the US by some radio stations refusing to play it, feeling that the song took an anti-American stance, something Hardcastle denies, noting he "had tons of letters from Vietnam vets thanking me for doing something for them". The song's reliance on sampling also caused problems with legal clearance. Ken Grunbaum recalled in 2012 that "there were no precedents for something like this. We ended up having to pay royalties to the narrator, Peter Thomas."

19 PTSD

In 2015, Hardcastle released a charity version of the song for the Talking2Minds organisation, who raise money for troops suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This PTSD remix was also found on ''19: The 30th Anniversary Collection'', a compilation album which included 14 versions of the song such as the Cryogenic Freeze Remix and a version which included samples of Marvin Gaye.

Music video

After the song's unexpected, rapid climb to the top of the UK Singles Chart, Chrysalis asked ''Vietnam Requiem'' directors Jonas McCord and

Bill Couturié William Couturié is a film director and producer, best known for his work in the field of documentary film. Accolades He won the 1989 Academy Award for the AIDS documentary '' Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt'' that he produced with Rob Ep ...

to rush a video into production. Due to the lack of a band able to perform the song, the video was primarily composed of clips from the ''Vietnam Requiem'' documentary, edited together by Ken Grunbaum. The first version of the video included footage from the television networks NBC and ABC, including a newscast by ABC anchorman

Frank Reynolds Frank James Reynolds (November 29, 1923 – July 20, 1983) was an American television journalist for CBS and ABC News. Reynolds was a New York–based anchor of the ''ABC Evening News'' from 1968 to 1970 and later was the Washington, D. ...

. After it was aired on MTV in the US, NBC and ABC objected to the "bad taste" of using the serious clips in a "trivial" form of "propaganda". McCord and Couterié were forced to produce a new cut incorporating

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

footage, but ABC permitted Reynolds' audio to remain. Couterié asserted at the time that the television networks opposed the video because it involved rock music:

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Parody

In the same year of release, comedian

Rory Bremner Roderick Keith Ogilvy "Rory" Bremner,"Rory Bremner". '' Who Do You Think You Are?''. Wall to Wall for BBC One. 2 February 2009. No. 1, series 6. (born 6 April 1961) is a Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political sati ...

, using the band name The Commentators, released a parodied version of the song as "N-N-Nineteen Not Out", about the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engl ...

's poor performance in test matches, with references to the team's disastrous 1984 home series against the West Indies in which captain

David Gower David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Te ...

had averaged 19.

Other uses in popular culture

Manchester United used the "19" soundtrack to celebrate their 19th

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

title in May 2011, and the song made a reappearance in the UK Top 40.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:19 (Song) Songs about teenagers 1985 singles 1985 songs Paul Hardcastle songs Anti-war songs Dutch Top 40 number-one singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Music video controversies Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in Italy Number-one singles in New Zealand Number-one singles in Norway Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Song recordings produced by Paul Hardcastle Protest songs Songs of the Vietnam War UK Singles Chart number-one singles Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles Chrysalis Records singles Post-traumatic stress disorder