Recently departed and much beloved BBC DJ John Peel held The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" as his favorite song of all time. However the depth of admiration that Peel expressed for the 2 minutes and 25 seconds of audio has become as integral a part of the song's history as the band that wrote it. The All Music Guide has a few choice quotes from him on the tune: "I can't listen to it now without getting all dewy eyed... And if I play it on the radio I have to segue it into the front of another record because I can't speak after I've heard it."

The track first appeared on the Northern Ireland band's 1978 Teenage Kicks EP released on the independent Good Vibrations label. The song also showed up a year later on The Undertones' Sire released, self-titled debut full length.

Peel was questioned in the Guardian in 2001 about his well known affection for the tune:

It is the Undertones' Teenage Kicks, still, after 23 years, the record by which all others must be judged. Maybe once a fortnight, after a few days of listening to sizzling new releases and worrying that the music is merging into angst but otherwise characterless soup, I play Teenage Kicks to remind myself exactly how a great record should sound.

''But what's so great about it?,' people, from my own children to complete strangers in wine bars, have asked. I've never yet come up with an answer that pleased me much, falling back each time on: 'There's nothing you could add to it or subtract from it that would improve it.'

...Sheila, my wife - I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight - knows that when I die, the only words I want on my tombstone, apart from my name, are:

'Teenage Dreams, So Hard To Beat.'


The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
John Peel (1939-2004)