UB40 and Robert Palmer 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight'

Chart Peak: UK 6
YouTube

It's not something I'd normally draw attention to, of course, but in the context of a South African CD it's hard not to notice that there's something different about UB40 from the acts we've encountered so far. That's right, they're from Birmingham. No seriously, even here there was a time when having black and white people in the same band was a controversial statement. But of course, UB40 have always been hugely popular in Africa so in the democratising early 1990s it's not surprising to see them here and even taking top billing whilstover here this was a Robert Palmer single with UB40 only guest performers. It comes from a Palmer album and he appears alone on the UK artwork, as well as taking the lead vocal (it sounds like at least some of the harmonies are him too, actually).

The song is of course a cover (yes, UB40 in cover version shocker!) of a track from Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding album, the first he'd released since his infamous motorcycle accident. Atypical of Dylan's work at this time, it's a light-hearted romantic song and the original version has a relaxed mood in keeping with the lyric. Neither Palmer nor UB40 ever really did that sort of calm easy-going music though, and the scrupulously tidy production undermines the effect rather.

Available on: The Essential Selection

UB40 'Rat In Mi Kitchen'

Chart Peak: 12

YouTube

Charted at No. 31 on 13th January, had reached No. 12 by 27th January. 'Rat' is UB40's 16th British Top 30 single in the last seven years.

Contrary to the claims of my eight-year-old self, they're not actually singing "there's a rat in my kitchen and I'm a kangaroo". After Boy George's reggae cover, it's almost ironic to hear Britain's most successful reggae band not doing a cover version. 'Rat' is also unusual among the group's big hits in that it doesn't feature Ali Campbell as lead singer - it's fronted by trumpeter and rapper Astro, though it was supposedly A. Campbell's real-life kitchen which featured the rodent infestation that gives the song its title. I hope there's a made-for-TV biopic somewhere which dramatises that scene.

Anyway, although the chorus might well have been made up on the spot, the finished song isn't really about any small animals, but about some sort of grass - as in an informant, obviously, not the smokeable sort of grass. Astro threatens to "fix that rat" in the chorus, although the verses are more explicitly violent. It's slightly incongruous against such a bouncy tune, but it's undeniably catchy and it makes a nice change not to hear Ali C's often whiny voice. The single version does sound a little inconclusive somehow, though of course it does fade less than half way through the full track. Perhaps on the album version Herb Alpert's trumpet part is more obvious as well. I never knew it was him just from hearing the edit.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 7, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: Triple Best Of

UB40 'I Got You Babe' (Guest Vocals Chrissie Hynde)

Chart Peak: 1

I Got YouTube

Originally No. 1 in September 1965 for Sonny and Cher, it returned to the top spot almost exactly 20 years later on 27th August with Ali Campbell as Sonny and the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde taking the female vocal.

Funny how the memory plays tricks: I'd always associated this "duet" with Live Aid, but in fact neither act was even present. They did, however, reprise it at the Nelson Mandela concert three years later, along with their version of 'Breakfast In Bed', a hit single at that time.

Without that Live Aid context, though, I'm not sure what led them to do this. I suppose it was just a combination of UB40's unstoppable urge to cover every song written before 1980 and Hynde's determination to be a reggae singer. In fairness to them, the studio recording is better than the mumbly soundcheck they seem to have used for the video, but it still succeeds in making Sonny Bono's already rather smug Dylan pastiche (apparently it was based on 'It Ain't Me Babe') sound even smugger still. Like all but their earliest recordings, the band sound half-asleep, twiddling away at a sluggish tempo without feeling. But they could afford to cry all the way to the bank with their second chart-topper.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 7, 9, 13 [with Chrissie Hynde again], 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: Love Songs

UB40 'Don't Break My Heart'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

The follow-up to the Number 1 single 'I Got You Babe', this track had sped into the Top 20 by the end of October giving them their 15th Top 40 single of the 1980's.

Not only the follow-up, but in fact a vocal version of that single's instrumental flipside. Presumably that came about because they grabbed the instrumental in the rush to release 'I Got You Babe' rather than them throwing some singing on after the fact, particularly since this was around the time of their remix/ragga album Baggariddim, the CD version of which this track ended up on.
Either way there still seems something a bit unfinished about this single. The chorus is memorable and Ali Campbell's wounded voice oddly affecting - evidently this sort of croon suits him better than a lot of UB40's material. The underwhelming verses let the side down somewhat, which might be why this song never seems to get mentioned (barring its appearance on an obscure compilation of "Balearic Pop") even though it's their highest-charting original song in the UK.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: Baggariddim

UB40 'Can't Help Falling In Love'

Chart Peak: 1 [2 weeks]

YouTube

Formed back in 1978, UB40 have charted consistently ever since... 1993 has been a great year for the band and has seen them record their 3rd UK No.1 with this cover of the Elvis Presley/Andy Williams standard.

Yes, a new month, a new album and a new format. As you can see from the illustration on the right, for the first time in the history of this blog we come to you through the medium of cassette. We can thank a work colleague of mine for supplying this and other tapes, as 26 is an album I'd been planning to cover for a while - it was the last Now album of 1993, which as you might not have spotted was the last year remaining between 1983 and 1999 not covered on this blog. That's partly coincidental, but it's also probably the year I was least conscious or aware of pop music after my toddler days, and even now there are a good few hits on here that I'd never heard before I got this tape home.

Sadly, this track is not one of those. And whilst it might seem slightly out of place to be covering a compilation aimed at the Christmas market in the height of summer, this actually hit the top of the chart 19 years ago next week, so it should have been within the catchment area of Now 25. It later did the double and became their second transatlantic Number One, managing a seven-week stay at the top of the US chart thanks to its appearance in the film Sliver. I've never actually seen that but as the video suggests, it has a strong motif of CCTV voyeurism, and in that context you might expect this to have been a darkened version, somewhat along the lines of Urge Overkill's version of 'Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon' (at least I assume that was supposed to sound creepy, it always did to me anyway) - at least that's what you might expect if you weren't familiar with UB40, who had by this point already released two entire albums of covers and had 13 previous chart singles with other people's material. What you'd expect from them by this point is more or less what you get, cheap sounding karaoke with none of the gravitas of Elvis. 

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18, 41, 56
Available on: Promises And Lies

UB40 'Sing Our Own Song'

Chart Peak:

YouTube

The follow-up to 'Don't Break My Heart' had sped to No. 6 by 15th July after just two weeks on release.

The title seems almost like a joke given the band's success with cover versions, but this is a self-composed song which sounds like an attempt to return to the socially-conscious roots of their earliest material. I'd forgotten the song until I played it and then it sounded vaguely familiar but it's not one that seems to have been played much in the last 25 years or so.

I'm not that surprised it's not more remembered though, as it does seem to run out of steam very early on and plods for most of the 3:53 that this single edit lasts: apparently the album cut runs more than seven minutes but I decided that would be beyond the call of duty.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: The Very Best Of

UB40 'If It Happens Again'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

Another song I remember hearing a lot at home for some reason; in fact I tend to associate it particularly with the Feargal Sharkey track, possibly because they both have that dramatic brass punch. 'If It Happens Again' was their first self-penned hit after the Labour Of Love covers set that's represented twice on the first Now album. As such, they'd already passed their artistic peak so far as I'm concerned, but they had a few good pop songs left in them and this is one of them.

However, it's hard to agree with the comment on this other upload that it "hardly sounds like it's an 80s hit." In fact one of the most notable elements of this track is the use of electronic drums and other synthesisers alongside the traditional instrumentation, in line with contemporary trends in reggae. The grouchy lyric suits the whiny quality in Ali Campbell's voice quite well and the only major flaw is that they seem to run out of ideas too long before the end, and that video is a bit creepy. Otherwise though, this is about the best of the after-they-were-really-good years.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 6, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: The Very Best of UB40

UB40 'Kingston Town'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

From Labour Of Love II, the sequel to the covers album that spawned the two UB40 tracks on Now 1, 'Kingston Town' is a version of an original by Jamaican singer Lord Creator, and the good news is that royalties from this version apparently did the composer no end of good. Less so for us, though, smothered by a typically drab performance and production. Perhaps the band are too much in awe of the original to believe that any version of it could be less than brilliant, but they suck all life out of it, with a plodding beat and an arrangement so tacky it was copied for a Paris Hilton single.

The biggest problem is, I think, that we never believe for a moment that they believe in the premise of the song. Of course, we all know that Kingston isn't really their hometown, but they could have done a better job of capturing the sense of longing that's implied by the lyric, since they do by all accounts like the place. Instead we get another thin vocal performance from Ali Campbell. How many different ways are there to say "rubbish UB40 cover version"?

Also appearing on: Now 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: Labour of Love II

UB40 'Please Don't Make Me Cry'

Chart Peak: 10

YouTube

Well, I wasn't going to until I found out I'd have another UB40 sing to write about. At least I haven't heard this before, which is one advantage over the grossly over-exposed 'Red Red Wine'. Also, whilst this is another cover version (from their first Labour Of Love album) it was at least a reggae song - by the brilliantly named Winston Groovy - to start with, so at least they knew what to do with it.
Well, they should have known anyway. Unfortunately, they seem to fall into the same trap they did before: surprisingly, since whatever else we might say about them their love of the music is clearly genuine, they appear not to have realised that the simplicity of the original is actually quite demanding, and even though they perform it at about the same tempo as Groovy, they don't seem to convey the same energy with their synthetic-sounding version - I don't know whether this means they rehearsed too much or not enough. The record also casts an unflattering light on Ali Campbell's lead vocal.
On the positive side, though, Winston Groovy obviously had more to gain from the exposure than Neil Diamond, and he seems to have done well enough out of it, having toured and recorded with the group. And the video, which shows a boxing match between the two Campbell brothers, looks a bit prophetic with hindsight.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: Labour of Love Vol.1-3: the Platinum Collection

UB40 'Red Red Wine'

Chart peak: 1 (three weeks)

YouTube

I don't think it ever occured to me to wonder why they're all drinking beer in the video back then. Neither did it ever occur to me that this song wasn't really new: I think the whole concept of cover versions was beyond my ken at that point. To this day I don't think I've ever heard the Neil Diamond version and I'm really quite happy with that.
I've never owned a UB40 record (although I think my Dad had the Greatest Hits for a while) and at the risk of falling in line with critical consensus, I quite like what I've heard of the really early stuff ('Food For Thought', 'Tyler' etc) but once they get to this point all bets are off. I was struggling to define exactly what was so bad about it until we had a domestic discussion about it - I concluded that even though this is in the venerable tradition of reggae acts covering non-reggae material, it almost sounds like the opposite, a band who don't understand reggae trying to cover a reggae song.
But of course we know that UB40, whatever else you say about them, did know their reggae. So it's slightly difficult to understand quite what went wrong - Greed? Complaceny? Tinny early-80s production values? Was it just a hostage to fortune recording a song with the word "w(h)ine" in the title?

Either way, I don't think they ever quite recovered from it artistically, although that obviously wasn't a universal view as this was the song that really made them stars, ultimately topping the US charts and launching them in that market too.
It's not that you never hear this one, but it was also brought back to mind by Sean Kingston's minor follow-up hit 'Me Love' last year. Thanks a bundle Sean.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56

Available on: The Best Of UB40, Volumes 1 & 2 [2CD]