"Teenage Kicks" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by The Undertones | ||||
from the album The Undertones | ||||
B-side | "True Confessions" | |||
Released | 21 October 1978 | |||
Recorded | ||||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:28 | |||
Label | Sire | |||
Songwriter(s) | J. J. O'Neill | |||
The Undertones singles chronology | ||||
|
Teenage Kicks | |
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EP by | |
Released | September 1978 |
Recorded | 15 June 1978 |
Studio |
|
Length | 7:51 |
Label | |
Producer | Davy Shannon |
Alternative cover | |
Music video | |
"Teenage Kicks" on YouTube |
"Teenage Kicks" is the debut single by Northern Irish punk rock band the Undertones. Written in the summer of 1977 by J.J. O'Neill,the band's rhythm guitarist and principal songwriter,the song was recorded on 15 June 1978 and initially released that September on independent Belfast record label Good Vibrations, [6] before the band signed to Sire Records on 2 October 1978. Sire Records subsequently obtained all copyrights to the material released upon the Teenage Kicks EP and the song was re-released as a standard vinyl single on Sire's own label on 14 October that year,reaching number 31 in the UK Singles Chart [7] two weeks after its release [8]
The single was not included upon the original May 1979 release of the band's debut album The Undertones ;however,the October 1979 re-release of this debut album included both "Teenage Kicks" and the Undertones' second single,"Get Over You".
Influential BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel is known to have repeatedly stated "Teenage Kicks" to be his all-time favourite song,from 1978 until his death in 2004. When he first played the song on his show on 25 September,he played the song twice (something he had never previously done). [9] Peel also specifically requested sections of the lyrics of the song be engraved upon his tombstone. [10] The song has also been ranked as the second best indie song of all time in a 2016 poll conducted by an alternative music radio station (after "Freak Scene" by Dinosaur Jr.). [11]
In 2008,the song served as the theme song to the ITV sitcom of the same name.
The song Teenage Kicks features prominently in Season 3,Episode 5 of the television series Derry Girls ("The Reunion") which aired in 2022. In a flashback to 1977 (a slight inaccuracy),a cover band plays the song,referring to it as "our national anthem". [12] [13]
Upon first hearing "Teenage Kicks" in September 1978,BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel is reported to have burst into tears,and readily admitted to still being moved to tears upon hearing the song in interviews granted to journalists up until his death. [14] To judge songs he had heard for the first time as to worthiness of airplay upon his show,Peel often rated new bands' songs with a series of asterisks,with each song judged upon a scale of one to five asterisks:Peel was so taken by "Teenage Kicks",he awarded the song 28 stars. On one occasion,he is known to have played the song twice in a row,with the explanation given to his audience being,"It doesn't get much better than this." [15]
In a 2001 interview given to The Guardian ,Peel stated that apart from his name,the only words he wished to be engraved upon his gravestone were the opening lyrics to "Teenage Kicks":"Teenage dreams so hard to beat" [16]
In February 2008,a headstone engraved with these words was placed on his grave in the Suffolk village of Great Finborough. [17] [18]
In 2004,a mural in tribute to Peel,featuring the opening line of "Teenage Kicks",appeared on a Belfast flyover. [n 1]
No. | Title | Written by | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Teenage Kicks" | J. J. O'Neill | 2:26 |
2. | "True Confessions" | J. J. O'Neill, Michael Bradley, Damian O'Neill | 1:53 |
No. | Title | Written by | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Smarter Than U" | J. J. O'Neill, Michael Bradley, Billy Doherty | 1:36 |
2. | "Emergency Cases" | J. J. O'Neill | 1:56 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [24] | Gold | 400,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
The Waco Brothers covered "Teenage Kicks" on their 2023 album The Men That God Forgot.
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004.
The Undertones are a rock band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. From 1975 to 1983, the Undertones consisted of Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O'Neill, Damian O'Neill, Michael Bradley and Billy Doherty (drums). Much of the earlier Undertones material drew influence from punk rock and new wave; the Undertones also incorporated elements of rock, glam rock and post-punk into material released after 1979, before citing soul and Motown as the influence for the material released upon their final album. The Undertones released thirteen singles and four studio albums between 1978 and 1983 before Sharkey announced his intention to leave the band in May 1983, citing musical differences as the reason for the break up.
Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star, doing rock covers, until they discovered punk. They were the first punk band in Belfast to release a record – the "Suspect Device" single came out on their own independent label, Rigid Digits. Their album Inflammable Material, released in partnership with Rough Trade, became the first independent LP to enter the UK top 20.
Seán Feargal Sharkey is a singer from Northern Ireland. He was the lead vocalist of punk band The Undertones in the 1970s and 1980s, and a solo artist in the 1980s and 1990s. His 1985 solo single "A Good Heart" was a number-one hit in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands. After becoming less musically active in the early 1990s, he has performed various roles supporting the UK's commercial music industry, winning several awards and honours for his work in that area.
This article gives details on 2004 in music in the United Kingdom.
"One Way or Another" is a song by American new wave band Blondie from their 1978 album Parallel Lines. Lyrically, the song was inspired by Blondie frontwoman Deborah Harry's experience with a stalker in the early 1970s, an incident which forced her to move away from New Jersey. The song's music was composed by bassist Nigel Harrison, who introduced the Ventures-influenced track to keyboardist Jimmy Destri.
U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. One of the first hardcore punk bands, elements of rhythm and blues music - including harmonica - also remained an occasional element of their work.
The Undertones is the 1979 debut album by the Undertones. The album was recorded at Eden Studios in Acton, West London in January 1979 and was released in May that year. The original release included just one single release: "Jimmy Jimmy" and an album version of "Here Comes the Summer", which was never released as a single.
Hypnotised is a 1980 album released by the Undertones. The album, the second of four released by the band, was recorded at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands in December 1979, and at Eden Studios in London in January 1980, with the majority of the songs to appear on the album being written between March and December 1979. In addition, although the primary lyrical concern of the songs upon this album focused upon teenage angst, boisterousness, and heartbreak, several of the songs upon Hypnotised are notably both lyrically and musically more sophisticated than material released upon The Undertones.
That Petrol Emotion were a London-based Northern Ireland-originating band with an American vocalist, Steve Mack. It featured the O'Neill brothers from celebrated Derry pop-punk band The Undertones plus ex-members of fellow Derry bands Bam Bam and The Calling and The Corner Boys. They recorded five albums between 1986 and 1994, exploring an eclectic fusion of alternative rock, post-punk, garage rock and dance music which in part anticipated and overlapped with the dance-pop era of the 1990s.
Michael "Mickey" Bradley is the bassist for the Northern Irish pop punk band The Undertones. Bradley is also a radio producer for BBC Radio Foyle and presented a one-hour programme on Radio Ulster: "After Midnight with Mickey Bradley". The show featured tracks from the new wave/punk era. Bradley now presents a show titled "The Mickey Bradley Record Show" which airs from 7.30pm to 9.30pm every Friday night on BBC Radio Ulster with Bradley's discussing the records played with a Twitter audience.
Good Vibrations was a Belfast record label and store. Founded by Terri Hooley in the early 1970s, Good Vibrations started out in a small derelict building on Great Victoria Street, Belfast. Good Vibrations began life as a record shop, opening in late 1976; it grew to become a popular record shop.
The culture of Belfast, much like the city, is a microcosm of the culture of Northern Ireland. Hilary McGrady, chief executive of Imagine Belfast, claimed that "Belfast has begun a social, economic and cultural transformation that has the potential to reverberate across Europe." Belfast is split between two rarely-overlapping vibrant cultural communities, a high-culture of opera, professional theatre, filmmaking and the visual arts and a more popular or commercial culture. Throughout the short years of troubles, Belfast tried to express itself through art and music. Hi In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the city has a growing international cultural reputation
The Sin of Pride is the fourth and final album to be released by the original line-up of the Undertones. The album, which was produced by Mike Hedges, was recorded between the autumn of 1982 and the spring of 1983. Unlike the three previous albums released by the Undertones, which primarily consisted of guitar-oriented music, The Sin of Pride drew much inspiration from both Soul music and Motown. The band's lead singer, Feargal Sharkey, has opined The Sin of Pride as being "the finest Undertones album."
"You've Got My Number " is a 1979 punk rock song originally written and recorded by Northern Irish band the Undertones. Written in the summer of 1979 by the band's main songwriter, John O'Neill, the single was released on 9 October that year and reached number 32 in the UK charts. The song was performed live on Top of the Pops on 15 November 1979.
Terence Wilfred Hooley is a prominent figure in the Belfast punk scene and founder of the Good Vibrations record shop and label. He was responsible for bands such as The Undertones, Rudi, Protex and The Outcasts making their mark on the music scene in Ireland and Britain. After playing "Teenage Kicks" on BBC, national radio John Peel then became a big supporter of the Good Vibrations record label.
"My Perfect Cousin" is a song by Northern Irish punk rock band the Undertones. The song – inspired by an actual cousin of one of the band members – was written during the summer of 1979 and recorded at Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum in December 1979.
"Jimmy Jimmy" is a Top 20 punk rock song originally written and recorded by Northern Irish band the Undertones in the spring of 1979. The song was written by the band's main songwriter, John O'Neill, it was the Undertones' third single and was released on 20 April 1979, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, making "Jimmy Jimmy" the Undertones' first Top 20 single. The song was included on both the original issue and subsequent reissue of the band's debut album, The Undertones.
"Wednesday Week" is the seventh single released by the Undertones. The song was written in December 1979 by the band's rhythm guitarist and principal songwriter, John O' Neill, during a Christmas break the band had taken while recording their second album, Hypnotised. The song was notably more mellow than each of the six singles the band had released previously, drawing influences from mid-sixties acts such as the Kinks and the Beatles as opposed to punk rock acts such as the Ramones.
"Alternative Ulster" is the second single by the Northern Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers. Originally released as a single on 17 October 1978, the song later appeared on the band's 1979 debut studio album, Inflammable Material.
The 'Teenage Kicks' mural was a reference to the 1978 punk rock song by the Undertones,
It is now widely acknowledged as a classic -- a pop-punk standard that continues to point the way for countless bands on both sides of the Atlantic.