Iona’s Song of the week - No. 17

We go back to September of 1978 for this week’s song, which, upon hearing it for the first time, BBC Radio One DJ John Peel declared to be the best song he had ever heard, and he is reported to have cried when first encountering it! He also had a method of rating new bands’ songs, giving them between one and five asterisks. This song was alledgedly awarded twenty-nine, no less!

The single was the debut song from a Northern Irish Punk Rock band that formed in 1974 in Derry. Many of their early influences were Punk Rock and New Wave, moving onto to include Glam Rock and Post Punk, before bowing out, citing Motown and Soul as well! During their initial iteration which lasted six years, they released thirteen singles and four studio albums. And I must defer to the late legend, John Peel, and concur that this track is a stonker, power-pop par excellence and all wrapped up in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds!

Peel asked for a line from the song to be engraved on his gravestone, which can be found in the village of Great Finborough, Suffolk. The inscription,, the opening line from the song, reads “Teenage Dreams so hard to beat”!

And so here is Teenage Kicks by The Undertones……

https://youtu.be/PinCg7IGqHg?feature=shared