THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

537-UB40-Kingston Town.

1990-Number 4 single.

Best Bit-At 0.08. UB40 maybe brilliant when it comes to making music, but it appears they are rubbish when it comes to geography, surely they should know that Kingston is a city, not a town.

UB40 were formed in Birmingham, England, in 1978. The classic line up who recorded the debut Album ‘Signing Off’ in 1980 (see also best songs 173) were Ali Campbell (lead vocals,) Robin Campbell (lead guitar,) Earl Falconer (bass,) Norman Lamont Hassan (percussion,) Terence ‘Astro’ Wilson (vocals,) Jim Brown (drums,) Brian Travers (saxophone,) and Michael Virtue (keyboards.) This line up remained in place until Ali Campbell’s departure in 2008, he has since formed a new band ‘UB40 Reunited,’ with Astro, and Mickey Virtue. The remainder of the classic UB40 line up are still active with Ali, and Robin’s brother, Duncan Campbell, having now taken over as the bands new lead singer.

‘Kingston Town’ was the third single released from UB40’s ninth studio Album ‘Labour of Love 2,’ released in 1989. The song reached the top 40 in 10 European countries, including topping the charts in The Netherlands, and France, where with sales in that country of nearly 600,000 copies, it is at the time of writing the 426th best selling song of all time in France.The Album contains 14 cover versions,played in the Reggae genre, many based on the original versions arrangement, and some arranged by the band. ‘Kingston Town’ was originally written and recorded in 1970 by the Reggae artist Kentrick Patrick, who was known by the stage name Lord Creator. Patrick was born around 1940 in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, he is considered an important ‘outside’ influence on the early development of the Jamaican music scene.In 1962 Lord Creator recorded the song ‘Independent Jamaica’ which became the official song to mark Jamaica’s independence from the British Empire on August 6th, 1962, the song also became the first record released on Chris Blackwell’s newly founded ‘Island Records’ label (Island 001) in 1963.

‘And when I am king, surely I would need a queen, and a palace and everything,yeah. And now I am king, and my queen will come at dawn, she’ll be waiting in Kingston Town.