The 10 best songs by Madness
At the end of the 1970s, ska and 2 Tone were beginning to make waves in the British music scene, with acts like The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat all being the major proponents of this blossoming style of music. Taking influence from the music of Jamaica and the wider Caribbean islands, where reggae, rocksteady and the original wave of ska music originated from, this new British incarnation focused on the political and social issues that were prevalent in the country under the austere Conservative rule.
The outlier among the insurgence of ska-adjacent acts that achieved chart success were Madness. As much a pop and new wave act as they were a ska band, they took things to greater heights in terms of the genre’s commercial viability by expertly weaving in different influences and inflecting it with a feeling of quintessential British whimsy and a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour.
Purists may wince at the idea of calling Madness a ska band for the way that they diluted the genre with so many external influences, but their roots in ska and rocksteady were unignorable. The syncopated rhythms and utilisation of vibrant horns and sax were a common thread throughout their early work, but they simply embellished them with their own touches and arguably provided a prototype for the later phenomenon of Britpop.
An excellent group of musicians and songwriters backed by incredible yet playful lyricism, Madness are an institution of British music who still retain their avid fanbase to this day. While some of their most iconic moments are covers, they’ve still got plenty of their own brilliance to offer over the course of 13 studio albums. However, it was in their early years where they shone brightest, and their singles catalogue from this period is especially bountiful. Here are the top 10 offerings that they had to offer throughout their career.
The 10 best songs by Madness
‘My Girl’
Written by keyboard player Mike Barson after overhearing a colleague who was constantly whinging about his girlfriend, he was inspired to use his own experiences of relationships turning sour over the most minor disagreements in order to make the song a lot more whimsical than simply using the opportunity to have a big moan. Add some trademark playfulness and intuitive rhythmic changes, and you’ve got Madness gold.
While Barson sang early versions of the track when played live, he would eventually hand the song over to frontman Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson to take on lead vocal duties and bring his own personality into it. There’s little denying that while it’s one of their more introspective cuts, it still packs the same cheekiness and charm as some of their other more vibrant numbers and deserves to squeeze its way into the list.
‘It Must Be Love’
As mentioned, Madness were known for a handful of excellent covers, and while it feels odd saying that one of an artist’s best songs is one they didn’t write themselves, Madness made Labi Siffre’s 1972 track, ‘It Must Be Love’ their own and gave it new life when they released a cover of it in 1981.
Where the original is far more folk-oriented, with a touch of Cat Stevens about it, the pop instrumentation and more expansive arrangements of the Madness interpretation are what make it such a timeless song. The plucked pizzicato strings and clever guitar and piano interplay give it the ska lilt that the band are known for, but overall, what was a tender folk ballad became a blast of brightness that the song’s themes of tender love always deserved.
‘The Prince’
The band’s debut single may not have instantly put them on the map, but it should be regarded as one of their most defining songs for how it immediately introduces all of the elements that they would go on to be celebrated for. Written as a tribute to Prince Buster, the influential reggae and rocksteady artist who was a major inspiration for the band, we get to see the band employ their ska influences in full force.
It does however introduce Madness as a more pop-adjacent act who are able to bring a completely different side to the genre to a UK audience, and the balance that they’re able to strike when pulling together these opposing concepts of where to take the band is exemplary on this song. Each band member is also given an opportunity to flourish, almost taking it in turns to strut their stuff as they all riff on a wonderful offbeat groove.
‘Our House’
It makes sense that their biggest and most popular song is among their finest, but this came from their fourth album, The Rise & Fall, where nearly all of their ska sensibilities had evaporated and they’d allowed themselves to be completely absorbed into writing pop songs. It may have marked the beginning of the band’s decline, but the genius of ‘Our House’ is not up for debate.
The song avoids bringing in any of their previous ska influences, and this was somewhat alienating to their fans, but there is so much intelligent songwriting on display that it is difficult to overlook the stark difference between this point of their career and One Step Beyond. That said, it’s probably prevented from being taken higher on the list by the annoying infinite loop of key changes at the end until it fades out, which could’ve been avoided with one additional display of knowing how to tie things up.
‘Bed and Breakfast Man’
From the start of their career, Madness were signed to Stiff Records, a label that also boasted artists such as Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and ‘Bed and Breakfast Man’ from their debut album One Step Beyond is a lot more reminiscent of the style of songs that they would write rather than being in the realm of ska.
In addition to this, it’s a great example of how the band would go on to influence future generations of British musicians, with Blur’s 1995 album The Great Escape arguably taking several cues from this side of Madness’ songwriting. It shows off just how versatile the group were even in their earliest years, and how astute they were when it came to finding a way to showcase these two different sides of their songwriting ability.
‘Baggy Trousers’
Arugably the strongest example of Suggs’ lyricism, ‘Baggy Trousers’ is the antidote to Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, where the protagonist of the story reminisces about his school days in a far more positive light. Given Suggs’ experiences of having gone to a state comprehensive school rather than a public school, there was far less enforced discipline and less of an austere atmosphere in his education, and the campy style they use to prop up the lyrics reflects this well.
The rhyming couplets range from unexpected to ingenious, and are indicative of the band’s ability to weave humour into their music at any given opportunity. ‘Baggy Trousers’ is the sort of song that epitomises Madness and their position as mischief-makers, but while they may have been busy playing fools, songs like this demonstrate a sense of intelligence that your typical class clown wouldn’t be able to pull off.
‘Grey Day’
‘Grey Day’ might well manage to sound like two songs by the Specials within the first 15 seconds, taking the drum fill from ‘Too Much Too Young’ before launching into a piano riff reminiscent of ‘Rat Race’, but that doesn’t prevent it from being one of their standout tracks, and perhaps one of their most underrated numbers.
They were shifting a lot closer to pop by the time they released their third album, 7, but there are still smatterings of their origins on this one as they capture a far moodier atmosphere. The minor keys reflect a sense of anxiety and introspection that the band had only briefly flirted with on their first couple of records, but they’re able to reflect the feelings of misery and fear that mundane everyday life brings.
‘Embarrassment’
Here’s an earlier example of Madness and their more introspective side. While after the introduction, it does launch into an upbeat track that rivals ‘Baggy Trousers’ as the standout cut from Absolutely, the actual themes behind the song are far from the usual cheery fare that the band were best known for dishing out, and that’s what makes the opening one-two of the album such a fantastic pairing.
‘Embarrassment’ is an incredibly bleak song written by saxophonist Lee Thompson that follows the story of his sister becoming pregnant with a black man, and her family disowning her as a result. While it doesn’t have a shred of positivity in the lyrical content as each family member expresses their disappointment in the woman, it doesn’t feel out of place with the buoyant backing track that they deliver at the same time, making it a standout moment that captured the band in a different light to how their fans were used to at the time.
‘One Step Beyond’
Madness show off their ability to cover the material of others once more, and with ‘One Step Beyond’, they raise the almost minimalistic original to become a frenetic explosion of celebratory ska. Having been originally performed and written by Prince Buster, the artist who inspired them so much that they named themselves after a song of his (and covered it), the Madness version of Buster’s 1964 B-side is a lot more energetic.
Fronting the tracklist for their debut album, also titled One Step Beyond, the song is unusual for the fact that aside from the iconic spoken word introduction, the only words uttered are the title, but it’s such a great representation of the band’s vigour and enthusiasm that it’s difficult to mark it down for not displaying their way with wordplay. ‘One Step Beyond’ is arguably the band’s flagship song, and one that represents virtually everything that Madness do best.
‘Night Boat to Cairo’
If you thought ‘One Step Beyond’ got people moving, fans of Madness go nuts for ‘Night Boat to Cairo’. Another track that demonstrates their panache for writing high-octane ska, this frantic number doesn’t necessarily capture their British charm, but instead opts for the feeling of the titular Egyptian capital. The use of pentatonic and harmonic minor scales really bring out the North African feel, and the story that Suggs delivers of an explorer getting lost on the river Nile.
This is quintessential Madness all the way, and there’s a good reason why they leave it until the end of their live performances because its energy is unmatched, especially when the songs kicks back in after the false ending two-thirds of the way into the track. If you want to capture the essence of Madness and the amount of spirit they inject into their music, then ‘Night Boat to Cairo’ is the song that one ought to dive into first. It’s an absolute romp from start to finish.
