THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

471-Paul Hardcastle-19.

1985-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 0.26. Paul Hardcastle’s follow up single release to ’19’ was ‘Just For Money,’ which coincidentally reached Number n-n-n-nineteen.

Paul Louis Hardcastle was born on December 10th, 1957, in Kensington, London, England. His first professional venture in the music business was as part of the duo ‘First Light,’ with the vocalist Derek Green. Playing Jazz Funk, and Electro Music they released two studio Albums in 1983 and 1984, before the duo parted ways. In 1989 Hardcastle resumed working as ‘First Light,’ this time with Kevin Henry, the results of which became the 1989 Album ‘You Had It All.’As a solo artist Hardcastle has released 16 studio Albums between 1984-2014, he has also recorded several Jazz Albums. In the UK he has achieved four top 40 singles, his 1986 Number 15 hit ‘The Wizard’ was the theme tune for the BBC music programme ‘Top of the Pops,’ between April 1986, until September 1991.

’19’ was the first single released from Paul Hardcastle’s self titled fourth studio Album from 1985. Musically the song is Electro-Pop, and was inspired by the work of the American producer Afrika Bambaataa (see also best songs 716.) Hardcastle had watched a documentary on television called ‘Vietnam Requiem’ directed by Bill Couturie, and Jonas McCord that told about post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by Vietnam veterans.The documentary said that the average age of the soldiers was nineteen, and this struck a chord with Hardcastle who immediately thought of his carefree lifestyle in comparison at that age. ’19’ samples dialogue, and sound effects from ‘Vietnam Requiem,’ and therefore Couturie, and McCord receive songwriting credits alongside Paul Hardcastle. The narration sampled from ‘Vietnam Requiem’ was voiced by the American narrator Peter Thomas (1924-2016) who received royalties from the songs release.

’19’ went on to top the charts in 13 countries, but only made Number 15 in America. In the States a song was placed on the chart not only by how many it sold, but also by how many radio stations played the track. In America many of the radio stations banned the song, claiming it sent out an anti American message, so even so it was the best selling song for three consecutive weeks, it never received it’s full recognition.

‘In 1965 Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war, but it wasn’t. It was different in many ways, as so were those who did the fighting. In World War 2 the average age of the combat soldier was 26, in Vietnam he was 19.’