51st State (song)

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51st State is a 1986 single by New Model Army from the album The Ghost of Cain. It was written by Ashley Cartwright and New Model Army, produced by Glyn Johns, and released by EMI. The B-sides were "Ten Commandments" and live versions of "A Liberal Education," "No Rest," and "No Man's Land." The song reached No. 71 on the UK Singles Chart and stayed on the chart for two weeks.

Lyrically, the song says the United Kingdom is the 51st state of the United States, a claim believed to have helped cause a ban by the American Musicians Union that kept the band from touring the US to promote The Ghost of Cain. In 1987, Justin Sullivan described the song as a prophecy about England and other countries becoming US states, noting that this is not true now and he hopes it will stay untrue.

The track was originally written by Ashley Cartwright and first performed by his band The Shakes; New Model Army adopted it after The Shakes broke up in 1983. The single sits between "Brave New World" (1985) and "Poison Street" (1987) in the band's releases.