THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

150-Ian Dury and the Blockheads-Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick.

1979-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.41. It’s the music loving masochists favourite beat.

Ian Robins Dury was born on May 12th, 1942, in Harrow, Middlesex, England, he died of metastatic colorectal cancer on March 27th, 2000, at the age of 57. At the age of seven Dury contracted polio, most likely he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic, this illness resulted in the paralysis and withering of his left leg, shoulders and arm.

Ian Dury formed the band ‘Kilburn and the High Roads’ in 1970, releasing two studio Albums, and two singles, and opening for ‘The Who’ in 1973, but despite this they never rose above cult status and split in 1975. In 1977 Dury set up a new band which included this songs co-writer Chas Jankel, which were named the ‘Blockheads,’ after an Ian Dury song of the same name. In total there have been 18 different members come and go over the years, and they remain active at the time of writing. They have released six studio Albums, and 10 singles, with five of those singles making the UK top 40, of which three have made the top 10.

In 1981 Dury wrote the song ‘Spasticus Autistcus,’ to show his disdain for that years ‘International Year of Disabled Persons,’ which he saw as patronising and counter productive. The song was banned by the BBC at the time for it’s uncompromising lyrics, but in 2012 it was one of the songs chosen for the opening of the ‘London Paralympics.’ On his death Dury received many tributes including from Suggs the lead singer of Madness who said ‘Possibly the finest lyricist we’ve seen,’ and in 2021 Robbie Williams cited Dury as his biggest influence as a lyricist.

‘Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick’ was co-written by Ian Dury, (lyrics) and Chas Jankel, (music) but did not appear on their second studio Album from 1979 ‘Do It Yourself,’ as the policy was not to have singles as part of the Blockheads Albums,’Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick’ was eventually added to the 1996 re-issue. Although the song was riding high in the Xmas chart of 1978, it didn’t make Number 1 until January 1979, selling approximately 970,000 copies. In 2004 with the advent of downloads the song finally surpassed the 1 million mark, and is currently the 114th best selling song of all time in the UK.

Ian Dury had initially written the lyrics for ‘Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick around 1976, he has said,’I had Rhythm Stick for about three years on a bit of paper. I did a little demo with a drum machine and I gave it to Chaz. When the song was finished, Jankel phoned his mother and excitedly announced that he’d just written his first Number 1.’ Chas Jankel who was born on April 16th, 1952, in Stanmore, Middlesex, England, still tours with the Blockheads, and has released nine solo Albums between 1980-2010. As well as co-writing the Blockheads other UK top 3 single ‘Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3,’ he also wrote and recorded the original version of ‘Ai No Corrida,’ which when covered by Quincy Jones in 1981 reached Number 14 in the UK, and Number 28 on Billboard in America.

‘Hit me with your rhythm stick, hit me, hit me. Das ist gut! C’est fantastique! Hit me, hit me, hit me. Hit me with your rhythm stick, It’s nice to be a lunatic, hit me, hit me, hit me.’