Rocksteady - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

Blondie’s last number 1 before their 1999 reformation was The Tide Is High, a cover of the 1967 rocksteady tune by Jamaican ska group The Paragons.

Before

The original was written by John Holt, tenor singer in The Paragons, who were a vocal trio from Kingston, Jamaica. Instrumental backing came from Tommy McCook and the Supersonic Band, with production by Duke Reid. This amiable slice of gentle ska was originally tucked away as a B-side, then released as a dub version with vocal from U-Roy in the UK in 1971.

One of the reasons Blondie were so cool was their willingness to dabble in other genres. Heart of Glass, one of the best disco and rock tracks of 1979, had been tried as a reggae song beforehand. It was singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein’s idea to cover The Tide Is High, after they heard the original on a compilation tape they picked up in London.

Perhaps in an effort to dissolve rising tensions among the band, producer Mike Chapman insisted the band record their fifth album in Los Angeles. Autoamerican took Blondie’s eclecticism to whole new levels. There was Rapture, their attempt at rap, the orchestral and electronica of opening track Europa, and their stab at The Tide Is High. Rumour has it that Harry and Stein were such fans of The Specials, they asked the Coventry ska collective to be the backing group for this cover, but they declined. Considering how some of Blondie reacted to not featuring on Call Me, that might be just as well.

Review

The late 70s and early 80s saw Blondie amass quite the collection of chart-toppers. One of the best, in fact, particularly Heart of Glass and Call Me. Keeping up that standard would be a tall order for even the greatest bands. So it is perhaps inevitable – especially as they approached the twilight of their original run – that Blondie eventually came up short.

It’s not that The Tide Is High is bad – it most certainly is not. It’s just, OK. Fair play to the band for taking a different tack, dropping down a gear or two and covering a bright and breezy forgotten ska tune, and incorporating horns and strings into their arsenal. But the song wasn’t a classic to begin with, and there’s little that Blondie and Chapman can add to it to make it any better. They change the sex around in the lyrics, casting Harry in an unlikely role – the girl who’s struggling to get the man she wants. Other than that, it’s pretty much, well, a nice enough track, I guess. Harry’s voice suits it well, as she manages to sing sweetly without putting in much effort. Nonetheless, it’s the weakest their number 1s.

The most interesting element of The Tide Is High is the frankly bizarre video. The male members of the band are stood on a sidewalk watching Harry from below. Suddenly the outside of the building is supposed to look like it’s underwater. And Darth Vader seems to be watching on too? There’s also footage of a rocket about to be launched. As the song ends, Blondie and a load of revellers meet up with Vader, but when Vader turns around, his face mask resembles a duck… the fact that Harry still looks cool and sexy while singing to Duck Vader as the video ends shows what an amazing woman she is.

After

The Tide Is High was the first single from Autoamerican, but just as it was looking like every single they released would be a number 1, their fortunes changed. Even the follow-up, and one of their most famous tunes, Rapture, stalled at five on these shores. Only one more album, The Hunter in 1982, was released before the band split for 17 years.

The Outro

Electronic duo Coldcut remixed The Tide Is High for the 1988 compilation Once More into the Bleach. Seven years later it was remixed by Pete Arden and Vinny Vero for Beautiful: The Remix Album. In 2014 Blondie re-recorded the track needlessly for Blondie 4(0) Ever.

The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling), a remake with a new bridge, became girl group Atomic Kitten’s second number 1 in 2002. Again, serviceable enough, but less so than Blondie’s version.

The Info

Written by

John Holt

Producer

Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

2 (15-28 November)

Trivia

Births

18 November: Actor Mathew Baynton
19 November: Businessman Andrew Copson/Actress Adele Silva

Deaths

15 November: Novelist Joan Fleming/Conservative MP Richard Law, 1st Baron Coleraine/Scottish painter Agnes Miller Parker
16 November: Actress Imogen Hassall
17 November: Neuroscientist David Marr
18 November: Artist Richard Carline
19 November: Chemist EJ Bowen/Northern Irish footballer Laurie Cumming
22 November: Painter Norah McGuinness
25 November: Trade unionist Dorothy Elliott/Crystallographer Mary Winearls Porter
26 November: Actress Rachel Roberts/Actor Hector Ross
27 November: Physicist John Hubbard
28 November: Peer Antony Lyttelton, 2nd Viscount Chandos/Filmmaker Tom Stobart

Meanwhile…

17 November: 20-year-old university student Jacqueline Hill is murdered in Headingley, Leeds. She is the final known victim of The Yorkshire Ripper.

23 November: With the UK in recession, the government announces further public spending cuts and taxation rises.

The Intro

A tune that started out as a soft rock tribute to Bread singer David Gates’s dead father was repurposed as a reggae love song by Jamaican rocksteady singer Ken Boothe and became his sole number 1 in the autumn of 1974.

Before

Gates’s father had died in 1963, long before his son’s group became successful, but he considered him his greatest influence. The title was also inspired by him, as when Gates was a struggling musician he had bought his mother an orchid, and his father wrote to him saying he could have ‘anything she owned’ in return. It’s a lovely song, and will mean a lot to anyone who has lost a parent, but despite reaching number three in the US in 1972, it stalled at 32 in the UK.

Boothe was born in Denham Town, Kingston on 22 March 1948. He developed an interest in music while at Denham Primary Elementary School, with the help of his eldest sister Hyacinth Clover, who was part of a comedy double act. One of his biggest influences was Owen Gray, considered Jamaica’s first homegrown singing star.

As a teenager, Boothe formed a singing duo with his friend Winston ‘Stranger’ Cole. They released singles together as Stranger & Ken between 1963 and 1965. He also recorded as Roy & Ken with Roy Shirley in 1966, the same year he went solo and began recording at the famed Studio One, scoring his first hit with The Train Is Coming, on which he was backed by The Wailers. Boothe toured the UK the following year, promoted as ‘Mr Rocksteady’. To the unitiated, ‘rocksteady’ came after ska and before reggae, and is basically a slowed-down version of the two. It has nothing to do with rock.

Boothe enjoyed a number of hit singles over the next few years, including Moving Away and covers of American and British soul tunes. He switched to producer Leslie Kong’s Beverley’s Records in 1970, but following his untimely death he moved around and eventually settled with UK-based Trojan Records and Lloyd Charmers in 1971.

Two albums, 1973’s Black Gold and Green and 1974’s What’s Going On followed, and then when they began another album, Charmers suggested they work on a cover of Everything I Own, which eventually became the name of the LP too. It featured the Federal Soul Givers, Lloyd Parks on bass, Paul Williams from Toots and the Maytals on drums, Willie Lindo on guitar and Charmers on organ, piano and percussion. Unlike most covers, not only was the arrangement updated, but the lyrics were changed enough to alter the meaning of the song, altering it from a son mourning his father, to a spurned lover hoping to change her mind by whatever means necessary.

Review

Although a minor number 1 (strong enough to top the charts once more when Boy George released it in 1987, though), Boothe’s cover is a pleasant slice of light reggae-pop – the type of reggae I’d normally avoid (don’t get me started on UB40, plenty of time for that when I reach the 80s). Most of that is simply down to Boothe’s voice. Some find his delivery too exact and too tight to the music but his trademark deep timbre is unusual and makes the performance feel real to me, suggesting Boothe is wounded and broken but hopeful. However, it sounds like it was his fault, as Boothe mentions taking someone for granted.

Musically, Boothe’s version is better, but I prefer the lyrics to the original. They stand out more and after all, there are a million songs in which the singer is broken-hearted and trying to persuade their lover back. Not bad at all though.

After

Boothe had one more UK hit from the same album when Crying Over You reached 11. Unfortunately Trojan’s financial difficulties resulted in the label suspending operations, and Boothe’s career struggled to regain momentum when it returned in 1978. That year, he was name-checked in The Clash’s (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.

Boothe and Trojan parted ways again, and his recording output dropped considerably from then on, with only two albums released in the 80s – Imagine (1986) and Don’t You Know (1987), but often he was reworking old Studio One material. UB40 (there they are again) covered Boothe on their Labour of Love album in 1983, and its sequel in 1992. In 1995 Boothe collaborated with Shaggy on a remake of The Train Is Coming on the soundtrack to the action film Money Train.

The Outro

In 2003, Boothe was awarded the Order of Distinction from his homeland for his contribution to Jamaican music.

The Info

Written by

David Gates

Producer

Lloyd Charmers

Weeks at number 1

3 (26 October-15 November)

Trivia

Births

29 October: Cricketer Michael Vaughan
2 November: Hammer thrower David Smith
4 November: Singer Louise Redknapp

Deaths

28 October: Poet David Jones

Meanwhile…

28 October: The wife and son of Sports Minister Denis Howell survived a Provisional IRA bomb attack on their car.

4 November: Judith Ward was sentenced to life imprisonment for the M62 coach bombing on 4 February. It took 18 years for her to be released due to a wrongful judgement.

7 November: Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, better known as Lord Lucan, went missing after his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death in the Lucan family home. He was never found and his death certificate was granted in 2016.
Also that day, an IRA bomb explodes at the Kings Arms, Woolwich, killing two.

11 November: The New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms opened.

13 November: The Americanisation of the UK took a giant leap forward when the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Woolwich, South London.