The weirdest No.1 of the 1980s

5 hours ago
5 min read

Not many people could combine a dance track and a war history documentary to make a hit, but that is exactly what Paul Hardcastle did in 1985.

From surviving motorbike crashes to grappling with the reality of the Vietnam war, this is the story of 19.

Now believe it or not, Paul Hardcastle is not actually American. He is one of mine - an Englishman from Kensington, in London. He was born in 1957, so just after conflict began in Vietnam and neighbouring countries.

The Americans then got directly involved in the mid 60s. By the time it ended, Hardcastle would have been about 18, so despite not being American or Vietnamese, there is no doubt the war would have been a news feature throughout his childhood.

Now to begin with, Hardcastle had never planned to be a musician. In fact, he wanted to be a motorbike racer. But fate had different plans for him, and he ended up having an awful crash. He told the Guardian in 2012:

“All my life I wanted to be a motorbike racer, until I had a bad crash and ended up in hospital for four months. While I was bedridden I listened to the radio all the time, especially clubby stuff, and thought: "I can do that." So I swapped my video camera for a friend's synthesiser and did.”

I think if more people had that confidence we would have more great music in the world.

To begin with, he found it difficult to balance his work life with his goal of being a musician. He was working as a hi-fi salesman on Sloane Square, and this was making him enough money to pay the mortgage, but was also taking up all his time.

So, with some encouragement from people in the music industry, he decided to quit his job and focus on music full time. Yikes. Luckily for him, it would pay off.

To begin with, he joined a band called Direct Drive as the keyboardist. When they broke up, he formed a band called First Light, who had a few minor hits like the instrumental Daybreak.

Feels like you're driving along the coast of a tropical country looking at the sunset, doesn’t it?

But, before long they split as well, Hardcastle decided it was time to focus on his solo work.

Now, the solo track that paved the way for him to be able to make 19 was a song called Rainforest.

Rainforest was an unexpected success. Hardcastle told Electric sound in 2018:

“I’d been listening to what was going on in New York and I fused a ‘Planet Rock’/Soulsonic Force-type thing with a really jazzy melody and it just sort of exploded. It was Number One on the Cash Box chart, relieving Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ of its place. It then went into the soul chart and Billboard Top 100. I had my first hit.”

This was the breakthrough he needed, and he gained the attention of Simon Fuller, the publisher who had signed Madonna. Shocked that his top signing had been knocked off the top spot, he gave Hardcastle a call and asked if he had anything else. Luckily, he did.

Around this time, a documentary had been airing about the Vietnam war. Hardcastle had recorded it, and upon watching it became morbidly fascinated.

The thing that really struck him from this documentary was the age of the average soldier fighting this war. He told the Guardian in 2012:

“When I watched it back, 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.”

Inspired, Hardcastle began combining lines from the documentary and putting it to a dance backing track. He used a sampler, the Emulator II, that allowed him 2 seconds of sampling time. He started playing around with that line - In Vietnam, he was 19.

He then added some vocals, sung by session musician Janice Hoyte. The lyrics are straight to the point:

All those who remember the war

They won't forget what they've seen

Destruction of men in their prime

Whose average age was nineteen

One of the last lines from the song, again from the documentary, is:

None of them received a hero's welcome.

The soldiers returned changed for the worst, to a country who was becoming more and more anti-war as the years went on. For many, it felt like wasted sacrifice.

Now, when Hardcastle shared the track, it got a mixed response. Fuller at the label was supportive, but others just didn’t get it. They questioned having such an upbeat backing track to lyrics about teenagers being killed.

But as we’ve discovered many times on this channel - a peppy upbeat tune, fused with dark, poignant subject matters, usually leads to hit song material.

When it was released in America, some stations refused to play it, thinking it was anti-American. They saw it as a track criticising the military and government, and I can see how on first listen it might seem that way.

But they misunderstood the meaning. While this track is not exactly a glowing review of the government’s decisions in Vietnam, it humanises the soldiers who were sent over there. It explores how these young men were misled and how many of their lives changed for the worst. It talks about PTSD, something that was still not fully understood at the time, and calls for empathy.

Luckily, the majority of America saw the track for what it was, and it outsold most other artists in the charts at the time.

Hardcastle revisited the idea years later with the war in Afghanistan. A friend’s son had been fighting there and was killed, aged just 19. He called this track ‘Boys to War’. He told the Guardian:

“The song's still special for me. It's also still relevant. In 2010, I did a new version about Afghanistan. My son's friend was killed there. He was 19.”

Throughout the years, Hardcastle has always made the message clear: war is cruel, and the psychological and physical impacts of warfare are life changing for soldiers.

On the 30th anniversary of 19, he released a remix dubbed ‘the PTSD remix’. The goal was to raise as much money as possible for veterans facing PTSD. He told Electric Sound:

“On the 30th anniversary of ‘19’ we released a version called ‘The PTSD Mix’. We had Afghanistan and the Falklands in mind and gave the money to people with post-traumatic stress disorder. For me, ‘19’ ended there years ago with that, helping people.”

Let's hope that single got some veterans the help they needed.

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