This song represents such a landmark moment in the history of sampling that when Propellerhead launched the first version of Reason in 1999, the company chose to call its sampler the NN-19 in tribute. It was also the inspiration for the name of Simon Fuller’s 19 Management company: Fuller was Hardcastle’s manager in 1985 and the success of 19 enabled him to continue his fledgling business, which would eventually bring us both The Spice Girls and American Idol. Now that’s what you call a legacy.

19, of course, is an anti-war anthem that repeatedly references the average age of combat soldiers in Vietnam. The sampled dialogue comes not from another song, but an ABC documentary called Vietnam Requiem, with the key phrases being spoken by narrator Peter Thomas.

Listen: Paul Hardcastle - 19

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