UB40 – ‘Red Red Wine’

10 September 1983

How many people over the years have been discouraged from listening to reggae just because their first impression of it was UB40? Millions, I reckon. They were certainly the most consistently visible—and, unfortunately, audible—reggae act throughout my teens. Not until much later in life did I realise that they were the exceptions, the outliers, the village idiots of the genre. The sooner you watch The Harder They Come or get a Studio One or Trojan Records sampler compilation instead, the better.

‘Red, Red Wine’ isn’t as appalling as their ’90s hits but all the UB40 radioactive elements are in situ: the sludgy production; the deadening rhythm; Ali Campbell’s constipated Munchkin voice. The song’s robust chorus does all the heavy lifting and made this a hit. Rare is the track that has you thinking you’d prefer to hear Neil Diamond’s version, but here we are.