# Song of the Day: U2’s “New Year’s Day”

- Link: https://indierockcafe.com/2013/12/song-of-the-day-u2s-new-years-day/
- Published: 2013-12-31T23:27:42-05:00
- Author: Max Hammer

New Year’s songs. This time of year always gets people talking about ‘New Year’s
songs,’ and other songs with titles or stories that are about starting fresh, new
beginnings, making changes, setting resolutions, and hopes, plans, wishes and dreams
of better things to come in the new year.

Yesterday we posted a playlist featuring a selection of excellent New Year’s Day
songs from **The Walkmen, The Stills, The Kinks, The Hush Now, Regina Spektor, Trembling
Bells and Bonnie Prince Billy, Death Cab For Cutie** and many others.

Today, the focus turns to easily one of the best – if not, _the_ best – alternative
rock New Year’s songs ever recorded. That is, “New Year’s Day” from **U2**‘s 1983
album, _War_, the band’s third album, and the one that catapulted U2’s breakthrough
success in the United States and around the world, and set the stage for the band
to go on to become of the biggest bands of the 1980’s and one of the most popular
in the history of rock.

The hit single, “New Year’s Day,” is also included on many _Best Songs of All Time_
lists, and among U2’s most politically charged songs of their entire discography.
For thirty years, it’s been an alternative song played on rock radio stations to
honor the beginning of a new year.

![New+Years+Day+newyearsday](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/
New+Years+Day+newyearsday.jpg "New+Years+Day+newyearsday")

[“New Year’s Day”](https://indierockcafe.com/music/2013/november/U2%20New%20Year's%20Day%20(Full%20Version).mp3)–**
U2** from _War_ (1983)

But it’s mainly a song about the Polish union workers movement, while “Sunday Bloody
Sunday,” the biggest hit from _War_, is a protest song against the British massacre(
known as ‘Bloody Sunday’) of Irish civilians in U2’s home country of **Ireland**.
The album also contains another rather significant single, “Two Hearts Beat As One.”

Related Post:  New Year's Playlist 2015 - The Walkmen, Tom Waits, Beach House, The
Kinks, John Lennon, Foo Fighters, Death Cab for Cutie

The video above, shot in 1983, was not widely seen by most U2 fans until it appeared
online some 12 or so years ago. The other video version of the song is the one most
people are familiar with and which played on MTV regularly for months on end, at
a time when the new music channel was just starting out, and coincidentally which
bands like U2 helped popularize, and vice versa.

The famous [album cover](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/meet-u2s-war-child)
for _War_, featuring the anguished face of a boy with big, intense blue eyes, is
one of the most recognized album covers of the post classic rock (1980 and on) era.
The album cover for the “New Year’s Day” single release (back when vinyl 45″ singles
were still mass produced) also featured the [same kid.](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/meet-u2s-war-child)

Don’t miss our [Best Indie Rock Songs playlist](https://indierockcafe.com/2013/12/best-happy-new-year-rock-songs-playlist-with-beach-house-the-walkmen-trembling-bells-bonnie-prince-billy-regina-spektor/)
from yesterday, with songs from The Walkmen, Beach House, Camera Obscura, Death 
Cab For Cutie, The Stills, Trembling Bells with Bonnie Prince Billy, The Kinks, 
Regina Spektor, First Aid Kit and Stars in both MP3 and Spotify playlists.