#53: 19 by Paul Hardcastle

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: August 1985
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
Peak Position on singles charts in Austria, Belgium,
Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany ~ #1
YouTube: “19”
Lyrics: “19”

Paul Hardcastle was born in 1957 in London, England. He told the Guardian in a 2012 interview, “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.” Hardcastle began his career in 1981 when he became the keyboard player for British soul band Direct Drive. In 1982, Hardcastle and lead vocalist Derek Green left the band to form a duo under the name First Light. They achieved some minor success in the UK chart, but during 1984 Hardcastle moved on to pursue a solo career.

In 1984 he released four dance singles. Of these, the instrumental “King Tut” reached #10 on the Billboard Dance chart. In 1985, another instrumental titled “Rain Forest” reached #2 on the Billboard Dance chart. His next release was “19”.

“19” was written by Paul Hardcastle and Mike Oldfield. They  sampled quotes from the 1982 ABC-TV documentary Vietnam Requiem. It is about the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by Vietnam War veterans. The film comprises interviews with five Vietnam War veterans – Duane Maybee, James McAllister, Kenneth Patterson, Raymond Baker and Albert “Peewee” Dobbs – in prison at the time of their interviews for crimes committed after discharge. The documentary is inter-cut with news footage from the time of the war. The script from the documentary was co-written by William Coutourie and Jonas McCord. The pair were given writing credits for the song in a United States legal settlement. The song’s reliance on sampling also caused problems with legal clearance. As a result, royalties were also given to the narrator of the documentary, Peter Thomas – a WWII United States Army veteran.

Hardcastle was inspired to create the song after watching Vietnam Requiem, and comparing his own life at 19 to those of the soldiers featured. Hardcastle told a reporter with the Guardian, “…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 (in 1976), not being shoved into jungles and shot at. One line – “None of them received a hero’s welcome” – really struck a chord. When the soldiers came home, people wondered what had happened to the smiling kids who went out there. What did they expect if they’d been through that shit?”

The song has a strong anti-war message, focusing on the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War 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” and “Saigon”. It also includes various non-speech, re-dubbed sampling, such as crowd noise and a military bugle call. The core message in “19” is that war has devastating effects on young soldiers. These soldiers often go into battle without fully comprehending the gravity of their situation. “19” speaks of the physical and emotional toll war takes on them, with many never returning home.

Early in the documentary, Peter Thomas tells viewers “In 1965, Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war, but it wasn’t. It was different in many ways, and so were those who did the fighting. In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was twenty-six. In Vietnam, he was nineteen.”

“19” 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.” Unlike at the end of WWII when soldiers, sailors and airmen were greeted by throngs of well-wishers, Vietnam War veterans received no heroes welcome.

The documentary Vietnam Requiem was aired eight years after the Vietnam War ended. A clip of narration from the documentary comprises the fifth verse of “19”.
According to a Veteran’s Administration study,
half of the Vietnam combat veterans suffered
from what psychiatrists call post-traumatic stress disorder.
Many vets complain of alienation, rage, or guilt.
Some succumb to suicidal thoughts.
Eight to ten years after coming home,
almost eight-hundred-thousand men
are still fighting the Vietnam War.

Since “19” wasn’t recorded with a backing band, Paul Hardcastle needed a music video to go with the song. He ended up getting clips from the Vietnam Requiem documentary. When ABC objected to some of the material being used for a rock n roll song, Hardcastle got open source material to create the music video.

“19” peaked at #1 in Los Angeles, Sacramento (CA), and Tampa, #2 in Hamilton (ON), Miami, and San Diego, #3 in Montreal, Houston, and Buffalo, #5 in Fort Lauderdale (FL), and Detroit, #6 in London (ON), and Mesa (AZ), #7 in New Orleans, and San Francisco, #8 in Chicago, and Kansas City (MO), #9 in Boston, #10 in Ottawa, and Dallas, and #11 in Portland (OR).

Internationally, “19” peaked at number-one in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany. In West Germany, “19” was the number-three song of the year for 1985. In the UK, “19” was the #4 hit of the year 1985.

It reached #2 in Canada and Spain, #4 in South Africa, #10 in Australia, and #15 in France and the USA. Paul Hardcastle notes, “In the US, even though it outsold everybody else for three weeks solid, it only reached No 15, because back then the chart was based on airplay as well as sales. A few stations refused to play it, thinking it was anti-American, which it wasn’t. But I had tons of letters from Vietnam vets thanking me for doing something for them.”

The song received the Ivor Novello Award in the UK for Best International Hit of the year (1985). It also received Ivor Novello Award nominations for Best Selling “A” Side, and Best Contemporary Song.

Bill Couturié and Jonas McCord won an Emmy Award in 1982 for Best Documentary for Vietnam Requiem. Narrator, Peter Thomas, had a distinguished career and died at the age of 91 in 2016.

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. While in 2010, Paul Hardcastle recorded a song titled “Boys to War” which was a revised version of the idea of “19” applied to British forces fighting in Afghanistan.

In 1986, he released “Don’t Waste My Time” with vocals by British session vocalist Carol Kenyon. The single made it to #8 on the UK pop chart, #9 in Switzerland, and the Top 20 in another half dozen nations. A followup, the dance tune “The Wizard” reached #10 in Ireland and #15 in the UK. After 1989, Hardcastle took a break from releasing singles.

Beginning in 1994, Paul Hardcastle began to release smooth jazz albums. Eleven of these have cracked the Top Ten on Billboard Jazz Album charts in the USA. In addition, his jazz singles “Serene” (2005), “Lucky Star” (2008), “Easy Come, Easy Go” (2011), “No Stress (At All)” (2013), “Echoes Rising” (2016), “Happy Go Lucky” (2019), “Dancing Galaxies” and Latitude” (2020), “Welcome to the Beach” and “Tropicool” (2021), and “Wavelength” (2022) have all topped the Smooth Jazz Airplay chart in the USA.

Since 1980, William “Bill” Coutourie has variously directed, produced and written over twenty documentaries. Jonas McCord has a distinguished career in New York and Hollywood where he has worked for over 30 years. He is a two-time Emmy winner, and recipient of The Peabody Award.

May 14, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:

Dave Simpson, “How we made the pop song 19 by Paul Hardcastle and Ken Grunbaum,” Guardian, September 24, 2012.
Jim Bossman, “Anti-War Clip Provokes Network Wrath: Hardcastle’s ’19’ Recut Following ABC, NBC Objections,” Billboard, June 1, 1985.
Mark Blunden, “Eighties star Paul Hardcastle re-releases anti-war hit 19 to raise funds for British soldiers,” Evening Standard, May 20, 2015.
Paul Hardcastle, “Boys to War“, 2010.
Rob Copsey, “Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 1985,” officialcharts.com, April 9, 2021.
“Vietnam Requiem“, ABC, 1982.
Mike Oldfield, “Family Man“, vancouversignaturesounds.com, May 25, 2022.
“Bill Couturié,” Imdb.com.
“Peter Thomas: Obituary: 1924-2016,” Legacy.com.

CKOI 96.9 FM Montreal (PQ) Top Ten | August 9, 1985