New Order releases Ceremony, one of the songs of the year

New Order : Ceremony

On March 6, 1981 New Order released its debut single the UK#34 "Ceremony" b/w "In A Lonely Place". It's a Joy Division tune with lyrics written by the late Ian Curtis, despondent as ever. (Oh, I'll break them down, no mercy shown/ Heaven knows, it's got to be this time/ Watching her, these things she said/ The times she cried/ Too frail to wake this time). The band would record the song again in September when Gillian Gilbert joined the band. 

I like this review on Rate Your Music from Duncan_Disor:

I bought this on 7" on it's release. I had it ordered at the local store and called in several times knowing full well it wasn't out yet but hoped that I'd be wrong. Yes I'm that old. And I'm a Manchester lad. And, I took it into school with me (as you did) and I remember that in those dark days the gold sleeve shone like the sun and I remember thinking that it was the most perfect thing I'd ever heard. To this day it raises the hair on the back of my neck and if there's a woman that feels the same here then we need to get hitched.