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In 1985, Paul Hardcastle, a talented jazz musician, released a single that topped the dance chart, reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100, and spent five weeks as the number one song in the United Kingdom. And his inspiration was an ABC television documentary on the Vietnam War.
It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely hit. Hardcastle combined an instrumental track with Peter Thomas discussing post-traumatic stress disorder, added a disco beat and a group of women singing, “All those who remember the war, they won’t forget what they’ve seen,” and had a massive hit. More amazingly, he took what could have been a cheesy or disrespectful disaster and ended up with a compelling recording that reminded a younger generation that war comes at an incredibly high price.
Although Paul Hardcastle never had another track chart on the Billboard Hot 100, he recently won the Billboard Smooth Jazz “Artist of the Year” award for 2008 and continues to be a well-respected artist. Hardcastle’s producer back in 1985, Simon Fuller (creator of American Idol), named his management company 19 Entertainment after the song.
And 24 years later, teenagers are still fighting in wars and dying thousands of miles from home.
