"New Year's Day" - U2

Promotional Release

Track Listing:

Background Information

A heavy promotional push was put behind the release of the first single from U2’s third album “War”. Where in the past there were few promotional pressings of singles, this changed with the issue of “New Year’s Day” and separate promotional singles were pressed in a wide variety of regions for the first time. In some countries, the commercial release is also used as the promotional release and is marked as a promotional release by use of a stamp or stickers on the sleeve or on the label of the vinyl. This was the case in France, where the commercial vinyl is stamped to mark it as a promotional item, and in Guatemala where a red stamp was used on the label to mark the single as a promotional item. In Canada a number of the 12” singles were sent out for promotion, and these were stamped with a gold stamp to mark them as promotional items. More information about these items can be found in the entry for the commercial single.

Unique promotional pressings were produced in many regions, some for the first time ever. In the USA, a double sided 7-Inch single was produced containing “New Year’s Day (Short)” on both sides. In Canada, the promotional 7-Inch vinyl contained the same tracks as the commercial pressing, “New Year’s Day (Short)” and “Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop)”, but the labels of the single were black and beige and released in a generic sleeve. In Mexico where a commercial single was not released, the b-side of the promotional single was “Surrender”. This single was released with an information sheet, and titles were in Spanish. In the UK a number of 7-Inch singles were used in promotion, including a 7” single very similar to the commercial single, except it lacked any photo at all on the label and was just a white label with text. Two versions of the single in the UK were released with a silver moulded label. These were often used for promotion in juke boxes. In France, some copies of the commercial single were released in a generic black sleeve, and stickered as a promotional item.

There were also 12-Inch promotional pressings of the single. In France a 12-Inch vinyl was produced containing the “US Remix” on one side, and the “Short Version” on the other side. The sleeve for this promotional item was unique, and was red, with the titles in white. In Japan, the 12-Inch commercial single was also released as a promotional single, and the labels were different between the two. The commercial vinyl featured a blue coloured label, where the promotional vinyl had a white label with blue, and was far less colourful. The sleeves were stickered to mark the vinyl as a promotional item in Japan. Finally a USA 12-Inch vinyl promotional pressing came in a generic sleeve, and contained the longer “New Years Day (Studio Version)” on both sides.

In Brazil, there were at least two 12-Inch vinyl promos which featured New Year’s Day. Both of these were produced by WEA, and featured the U2 track mixed with other artists. The first 12-Inch features “New Year’s Day” as the first track, and is filled out with “Let’s Talk (Dance Mix)” by One Way, “Just a Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody (Medley)” by David Lee Roth, “Never Gonna Die” by Rough Cutt, and “Talk to Me” by Fiona. The promo is labelled “Promo-Disco No 46.” The second 12-Inch featured the US Remix of “New Year’s Day”, as well as “Big Boss Man” by B.B. King, “Separate Lives” by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin, and “No Lookin’ Back” by Michael McDonald. This 12-Inch was labeled “Promo No. 62”. “New Years Day (US Remix)” is the first track on this release. Both of these promos were issued in 1985 in Brazil.

For more information on the single “New Year’s Day”, including information about the song, how it charted, and the songs included on international releases, please see our discography entry for the “New Year’s Day” single.

Liner Notes

Produced by Steve Lillywhite.

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