The anti-war oddity that dominated the charts in the spring of 1985
It wasn’t like Paul Hardcastle was exactly a one-hit wonder, but his charts legacy, particularly from 1985, was a pretty specific niche.
While the musician had varied success in myriad styles back in the early days of the ‘80s, from funk to freestyle to instrumentations, it was something far less loose and figurative that truly caught his attention. Indeed, it was perhaps the starkest and most terrifyingly rigid thing one could ever encounter in a life.
That speaks volumes about the stark and morbid reality of war, something that Hardcastle found difficult to wrap his head around while watching the scenes of the Vietnam War unfold from afar, wrapped in the comfort and safety blanket of his own home, while realising that those who were sacrificing their lives were not so different from himself.
The result was his most famous song ‘19’, which shot to number one in the UK after it was released in April 1985, maintaining its reign at the top spot for a whole five weeks. This cemented Hardcastle as a storming, if also synthesised, voice with something truly important to say, and a reality that no one could look away from.
To this end, the success of ‘19’ was not just insular to the UK but reflected across the world, becoming the top-selling single of the year in no less than 13 countries and sharing a number one stint in various other places, too. He was a man with a plan and wasn’t about to let those soldiers be forgotten without a fight.
What made ’19’ resonate so much in 1985?
Hardcastle had been struck by a 1982 American documentary called Vietnam Requiem, where the stark statistic was stated that the average age of a soldier fighting in the war was just 19 years old – for context, the average age of a fighter in World War II had been around 26, it was nearly sending children off to defend their country.
For his part, the musician considered what his own life was like at the same age. “I was out having fun in pubs and clubs when I was 19, not being shoved into jungles and shot at,” he rightly said, pulling sharply into focus not only how the other half live, but how people’s lives could be so different, only by a matter of circumstance.
That was clearly a message that hit home deeply with Hardcastle as well as the rest of the world – although the Vietnam War had ended in 1975, the timing of the release of the song, coinciding with its tenth anniversary, was pivotal to making the track as resonant as it was, and through every electro beat and stammered vocal, it was something that he was intrinsically aware of.
‘19’ may well be Hardcastle’s lasting legacy for the rest of time, because the ability to create something seemingly so obscure and abstract on the face of it, but cut through the heart of a mantra much more sincere beneath the surface, is anything but a simple task. For every 19-year-old sent off to fight, it was the reckoning – and recognition – that needed to be heard.
