Song 133 - Teenage kicks by The Undertones

With St. Patrick's Day upon us, there were lots of options I could have done musically to celebrate this day. An interesting one would have been to keep going on The Beautiful South theme as their first female singer was from Northern Ireland, but instead I have decided to go with an out and out classic Teenage kicks by The Undertones, a Northern Irish punk rock band.

Written in the summer of 1977 by John o'Neill, the song was initially released the following year whilst they were still with the independent record label Good Vibrations, based in Belfast. However, the song was re-released in October 1978 when the band signed to Sire Records, where it reached number 31 in the UK chart.

The most influential fan of this record was the legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who was reported to have openly burst into tears when he first heard it. It remained Peel's favourite song throughout his life and when he died in 2004, the first line of the song was put on his head stone " A teenage dream's so hard to beat". Having the backing of John Peel must have been gold dust for the band as Peel's position within the music industry was highly respected.

Although originally not included on their debut album when it was released in May 1979, a re-release in October the same year corrected this oversight and well, as is often said, the rest is history.

So whilst this may not be the most obvious song for St. Patrick's Day, I think this is a kicking tune to start the Guinness flowing. Enjoy your day.

Put a little punk into your life
Teenage kicks by the Undertones

Written by John O'Neill
Released: 1978
Album: The Undertones