100 Records That Shook The World, #11

New Year's Day

U2

The lyric had its origins in a love song from Bono to his wife. It was subsequently reshaped, inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement. The bass part stemmed from bassist Adam Clayton trying to figure out what the chords to the Visage song "Fade to Grey" were.

Bono said of the song in 1983, "I think the fact that it made the Top Ten indicated a disillusionment among record buyers. I don't think it was a pop single, certainly not in the way that Mickie Most might define a pop single as something that lasts three minutes and three weeks in the chart. I don't think we could have written that kind of song."

The song was "New Year's Day". It was the band's first UK hit single, peaking at #10 on the singles chart, #11 on the Dutch Top 40 and charting on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the first time in their career. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at #435 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of  All Time.


 
U2 - New Year's Day from Kurt Damon on Vimeo.

According to The Edge's biography, the four horsemen seen riding away in the video are not the band, but four young women. Evidently it was so cold while filming that the band could not complete the horseback shot. Not only that but because of Bono's refusal to wear headgear, he had difficulty mouthing the words. Rock and roll is a tough gig.