21 February 2013
One to remember for your next table quiz: which Irish act had a top 30 single in the UK and Ireland with ‘Teenage Kicks’? Answer: Niall Horan, as part of One Direction, with this 2013 charity single that topped both charts. The original by The Undertones only reached no. 31 in the UK and doesn’t have any placing recorded in IRMA’s official Irish chart data. So, here’s the only version of ‘Teenage Kicks’ that has ever charted in Ireland’s top thirty.
There’s also a Blondie song wrapped around it, of course. The original ‘One Way Or Another’ off their classic Parallel Lines album wasn’t released as a single in the UK or Ireland, but let’s not let that get in the way of another dadrock-sickening factoid: this is the only version of ‘One Way Or Another’ that’s ever charted in Ireland too!
Anyway, the track is a harmless and enthusiastic pop romp for charity, and if it annoys the dadrockers then that’s good work done too. I can’t be so charitable about the video, though, which features corny high-jinks-on-tour footage, the tired old Comic Relief white-saviour trope and, most disturbingly of all, David Cameron.
