Who sings the backing vocals on UB40’s ‘I Got You Babe’?
It’s one thing to reinvent pop hits into reggae sensations, but UB40 did it so often that they made it look far easier than it actually was.
Between giving Elvis Presley a flavour of Jamaica to eclipsing Neil Diamond with the renewed suaveness of their ‘Red Red Wine’, this was truly the definition of a band like no other. Not since Bob Marley had reggae taken the charts so forcefully by storm, but this time, with the spirit of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Yemen also thrown into the party.
It was obviously this unique tonic which made UB40 an absolute hit on both sides of the Atlantic, as entertaining as they were sonically intriguing. But it was also undoubtedly their talent and deftness for taking the pinnacle of American pop and transforming it into something so dynamic on a multicultural level that saw them storming up the charts, as they did with ‘I Got You Babe’ in 1985.
The seismic song and the UK number one that came along with it was a golden status to ride on for UB40, but it also begged an obvious question: the original track was a duet between Sonny and Cher, after all, so who was it taking the female mantle this time around? Naturally, for a band so used to global domination by this point, it needed to be someone equally as commanding.
As such, that coveted role went to Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, whose pop and rock dominance during the 1980s was the perfect match for the refined tastes of the UB40 ranks. Yet at the same time, this represented something far more than simply filling in a backing vocal.
What did collaborating with UB40 mean for Chrissie Hynde?
Even though the mid-1980s was less than a decade after The Pretenders had originally formed, it had been seven years littered with as much gold as there had been tragedies. Having lost two of her original bandmates, James Honeymoon-Scott and Pete Farndon, to devastating drug overdoses over the successive years of 1982 and 1983, the shot at the single with UB40 was her chance to prove she could go it alone.
The turbulence hadn’t stopped in the year to date of 1985, either. Firing her only remaining original Pretenders bandmate, Martin Chambers, after performing at Live Aid, Hynde was somewhat rudderless with an essentially all-new band to get to grips with. Collaborating with UB40 was her opportunity to display that she could still stand on her own two feet.
And that was exactly what she did, singing the duet vocals on the band’s rendition of ‘I Got You Babe’, which shot straight to the top of the UK charts. After years of unchecked chaos, UB40 were as strong as ever, while Hynde showed that despite her trials and tribulations, she could still very well create a success.
Whether it was the power of ‘I Got You Babe’ or a feeling of resetting in general, but with a renewed sense of purpose, Hynde returned to the drawing board of The Pretenders and steered them through the choppy waters. The fact she’s still here to tell the tale is remarkable – but she might just have a Birmingham band of reggae souls to thank for it.
