<P> "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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 bassline stemmed from bassist Adam Clayton trying to figure out the chords to the Visage song "Fade to Grey" during a soundcheck . </P> <P> 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 ." </P>

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