This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.Welcome to America Bono! "New Year's Day" was the first U2 single to enter the U.S. pop charts and launched a success story that has lasted 3 decades!
The lyrics are centered around the Polish Solidary movement of the 80's (you remember from history class, right?!) U2 was one of the few group in that time doing actual political protest songs. (American groups tried their own protests such as "Fight For Your Right To Party"). Bono, especially, would stay political throughout his career, eventually being honored with the "Man of Peace" Nobel prize in 2008.
MTV played a major role in the popularity of this song. "New Year's Day" was in rotation on the network when MTV was a mere two-year-old. The video featured the band playing in the snow with Bono sporting a wonderful text-book example of a mullet hairdo. The mullet is long-gone, but the song remains. It has been played on every U2 tour since 1983! Even PopMart!
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