50 Years (song)
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"50 Years" is a song by Australian Rock-pop group
Uncanny X-Men ''Uncanny X-Men'', originally published as ''The X-Men'', is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-running series in the List of X-Men comics, X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of super ...
. The song was released in May 1985 as the second single from the band's debut studio album, ''
'Cos Life Hurts ''Cos Life Hurts'' is the debut studio album by Australian pop-rock group Uncanny X-Men ''Uncanny X-Men'', originally published as ''The X-Men'', is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-runn ...
''. It peaked at number 4 on the
Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 19 ...
, becoming the group's first top 5 single. The song was produced by
Red Symons Redmond Symons (born 13 June 1949) is an Australian musician and television and radio personality. He was the lead guitarist in the band Skyhooks, the snide judge of 'Red Faces' (a segment of the long-running variety show '' Hey Hey It's Satur ...
under the name Red Pinko Sims who added an extra chorus at the end. Symons retrospectively said, "It does not have the naughty and vulgar charm of the other songs, tt is thoughtful and self-reflective" while Mannix said the song is "essentially about embracing the moment and living in the now."


Background

When the label (Mushroom) heard "50 Years" they wanted it to be the lead single from the band's album. Mannix disagreed and met with Mushroom's
Michael Gudinski Michael Solomon Gudinski AM (22 August 1952 – 2 March 2021) was an Australian record executive and promoter who was a leading figure in the Australian music industry. Born and raised in Melbourne, Gudinski formed the highly successful Austr ...
to plead his case saying he wanted to release "Party" a song more representative of the band's sound at the time, then, release "50 Years" to "pull the rug out from under them." Mannix said "I really liked a lot of those Rolling Stones ballads like "If You Really Want To Be My Friend" and "Wild Horses" so I was trying to write something like that. The lyrics pretty much wrote themselves. The line 'It don't mean nothin' was just words I had when I was putting the chords together." Mannix continued saying some Vietnam War veterans have adopted the line as "Don't worry about it, what's done is done."


Track listing

7" Vinyl (Mushroom – K-9671) # "50 Years" # "Best Looking Guy"


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


References

1985 singles Uncanny X-Men (band) songs Mushroom Records singles {{1980s-pop-song-stub