"New Year's Dub"

Single by Musique vs. U2
Released	2001
Format	Maxi single
Genre	Dance
Length	2:57 (radio edit)
Label	Serious
Writer(s)	U2 Moussa Clarke Nick Hanson
Producer(s)	Nick Hanson Moose

"New Year's Day" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven by Adam Clayton's distinctive bassline and the Edge's piano and guitar playing. It was the band's first UK hit single, peaking at no. 10, also becoming the band's first international hit, reaching for example no. 9 in Norway, no. 11 on the Dutch Top 40, no. 17 in Sweden and charting on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States (just missing the Top 50) for the first time in their career.

In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at #435 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". This song was also included in the Pitchfork 500.

The lyric had its origins in a love song from Bono to his wife, but was subsequently reshaped and inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement. The bass part stemmed from bassist Adam Clayton trying to figure out what the chords to the Visage song "Fade to Grey" were.

In 1983, Bono said of the song, "It would be stupid to start drawing up battle lines, but I think the fact that 'New Year's Day' made the Top Ten indicated a disillusionment among record buyers. I don't think 'New Year's Day' was a pop single, certainly not in the way that Mickie Most might define a pop single as something that lasts three minutes and three weeks in the chart. I don't think we could have written that kind of song."

"New Year's Day" is U2's fifth most frequently performed live song, with the Edge switching back and forth between piano and guitar during the song. It has been a standard on every U2 tour since its debut on 1 December 1982 at the first show of the War Tour's Pre-Tour, however the recent Innocence + Experience tour only featured three performances of the song for the entire tour. During the 1980s, the Edge used a to perform this song, along with a keyboard. During the 1990s and 2000s (decade), he has alternated between a Gibson Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Standard. The Les Paul the Edge used to write this song was sold for charity. Up until the Elevation Tour, Clayton normally used a chorus effect on his bass guitar for this song live. In the Top of the Pops performance, Bono is seen playing guitar.

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Wikipedia