Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie

"This generation rules the nation with version"

Musical Youth were a Birmingham-formed UK reggae band that included 2 sets of brothers and spanned the ages 11-15 when 'Pass The Dutchie' was released. At the time, a 'dutchie' was said to be a patois term for a cooking pot i.e. a dutch oven. However, the song was actually a cover version of The Mighty Diamonds' 'Pass The Kouchie', which was about something else all together (Hint: the call & response verse in the original is "how do you feel when you got no herb").

'Pass The Dutchie' was a huge hit in the UK in the autumn of 1982 but subsequent releases provided diminishing returns and the group had faded from the public eye by 1985.

"Ba Dang Dang Biddley Biddley Biddley Bong!"

Bonus clips: Here's The Mighty Diamonds' 'Pass The Kouchie'.

... and Lenny Henry's Musical Spoof.

Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down

I'm going to take a small side-step here and post a few songs which, while not truly my guilty pleasures per se, are IMHO the silliest songs by artists I'm otherwise extremely fond of. So to kick us off (and especially for you, Keef) here is a classic from ELO.

Now some may claim that there are other sillier ELO songs (and I do admit that 'The Whale' or the entire 'Time' album come pretty close), but I believe 'Don't Bring Me Down' is significant for 2 reasons:

1. It was apparently almost fully written and recorded one day in the studio by Jeff Lynne while waiting for the rest of the band to turn up. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise seeing as Lynne wrote a complete double-album 'Out Of The Blue' in about three weeks (are you listening, Axl Rose?)

2. This track heralded the end of ELO as an experiment between rock & classical orchestration. It was the first track they had recorded with no strings on it at all and in fact the strings section was summarily dismissed shortly afterwards (you can see them mucking around on a Moog in this video clip).

Coming from the disco-fied 'Discovery' album - or 'Disco? Very' as the ELO keyboard player Richard Tandy quipped, 'Don't Bring Me Down' was the highest placing single as a sole act (#3) ELO had in the UK, their only #1 being 'Xanadu' with Olivia Newton-John.

Bonus clip: What's that you say? You are dying to hear an a capella rendition of 'Don't Bring Me Down' with a somewhat cringeworthy choreographed routine? Well, here you go then...

Landscape - Einstein A Go-Go

Another one of those synth hooks I can't get enough of, 'Einstein A Go-Go' was one of only two chart entries (the other being 'Norman Bates') that Landscape had though they were together for long enough to create 3 albums. After disbanding, both Richard Burgess & John Walters went into production (the former producing the first 2 albums by Spandau Ballet, an earlier GP entrant) while Andy Pask wrote the theme to the long-running UK TV show 'The Bill'. Incidentally, Burgess is credited with coining the term 'New Romantic' so go blame him for that most ridiculous of genres!

Bonus Clip: Here's 'Norman Bates'

Barrington Levy - Here I Come

"Shudlee boop deee woodlee diddlee oooooooooh, zeen" - and that was exactly how we spent a short period of 1985 running round the playground. Does anyone know whether the claim to be 'broader than Broadway' is a boast or an acknowledgement of Mr. Levy's girth? Anyway, this track became popular again about 8 years later when a Jungle remix appeared.

The Jags - Back Of My Hand

A true power-pop classic though I cannot recall a single thing about The Jags. Wikipedia tells me they were formed in London at the tail-end of the 70s and that this single scaled the heady heights of No. 17 on the charts in 1979. All other releases bombed and the band split by 1982. Shame really...

The Beat - Can't Get Used To Losing You

I've always had a soft spot for the Andy Williams easy-listening original but this ska'd up version works pretty nicely too. The Beat (or The English Beat as they were known in the US) were a late 70s/early 80s Birmingham based band who covered this and 'Tears Of A Clown' plus had a string of original singles such as 'Mirror In The Bathroom', 'Too Nice To Talk To' & 'Stand Down Margaret'. After a couple of albums, the band split to form General Public (best known for an instrumental version of one of their tracks playing during the climatic chase scene in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off') and The Fine Young Cannibals (with Roland Gift). Incidentally, the teenage me would continuously mangle the title of this as 'Can't Get Loosed To Using You'(as Gary Davies also does in this intro!) which I guess would change the context entirely...

Bonus Clip: Here's my favourite non-Guilty Pleasure Beat track. It's apparently about narcissism and not cocaine dontchaknow!

Modern Romance - Best Years Of Our Lives

Another one of those odd early 80s UK sub-sub-genres, the short lived British Salsa revival. Modern Romance started off as a spin-off from 70s comedy punk band The Leighton Buzzards and had a couple of big hits namely 'Everybody Salsa' and 'Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey' (yes seriously, I'm not making this up). They then released a cover of the popular standard 'Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White' (featuring the 'trumpet stylings of John Du Prez, that's him in the Biggles outfit) before original lead singer Geoff Deane departed and the band took a more pop direction. 'Best Years Of Our Lives' was their biggest hit reaching the top 5 in 1982 before the band split in the mid-80s.

Interestingly enough, Geoff Deane wrote 'You Think You're A Man' for Divine before going on to be a TV writer and producer while John Du Prez teamed up with Eric Idle and co-wrote Spamalot. Morrissey allegedly once said of the group "There are indeed worse groups than Modern Romance. But can anyone seriously think of one?"

Bonus Clip: If you thought 'Best Years Of Our Lives' was ridiculous, take a look at 'Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White'!