What was the first reggae song to top the US charts?
The genre of reggae as a whole is synonymous with the likes of Bob Marley and Burning Spear, bringing the musical heart of Jamaica to the international stage and capturing the souls of so many beyond its country’s walls. But far from the sun-soaked island of the Caribbean Sea is the overcast skies of Birmingham, where, despite the fairly stark difference in climate, the spirit of reggae reached its strongest ever pitch.
That was, of course, through UB40, the Brummie band who may not have hailed entirely from Jamaican shores—indeed, not completely from Birmingham either, with members flocking from across England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Yemen—but who flew the flag of reggae at its best. They did so proudly with a slew of massive chart hits in the UK, but most prominently took the world by storm with one particular tune.
It almost goes without saying that this was ‘Red Red Wine’, their 1983 international breakout hit, which not only garnered the group critical acclaim, but the honour of the first ever reggae song to go to the number one spot in the US charts to boot. It really wasn’t a bad show for a tune that wasn’t even originally penned by UB40, nor was it on its first release, because the story behind ‘Red Red Wine’ is not the storming success it might seem in hindsight.
Between sheer strokes of luck and inter-band tensions, despite its easy-going beat and even sunnier sentiments, the song was no walk in the park for the band, and indeed, was a long-fought battle to get it to the top spot. But after all was said and done, with the commemorative disc hung firmly on the wall, the legacy of ‘Red Red Wine’ is one that UB40 will forever look back and be grateful for, largely because it kept them afloat through subsequent storms.
What happened when UB40 went to number one in the US charts?
Unbelievably, it was half a decade after ‘Red Red Wine’ was originally released in the UK in 1983 that it became a powerhouse success in America, following a resurgence in radio play in 1988. Subsequently, this prompted UB40’s record label to reissue the single, where in the span of one stellar October week, the band not only played their first show at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York, but became the custodians of the first ever reggae song to hit US number one.
It seemed like the best of times, but in reality, despite the champagne-popping, things were a little bleaker behind the scenes in terms of UB40’s dynamic. Their original bassist, Earl Falconer, was unable to join his bandmates in their Stateside celebrations as he had only been released from prison three months prior, for causing a car accident which killed his brother Ray, the band’s first soundman. “It’s weird,” mused co-founder Robin Campbell, “We’ve just had this number one single and he’s not here to enjoy it”.
But even when the chips were seemingly down behind the scenes, nothing could stop UB40’s public domination. Soaring back to the US top spot in 1993 with another cover song, this time of the Elvis Presley classic ‘(I Can’t Help) Falling in Love With You’, reggae was well and truly a mainstream sound of the late 1980s and early 1990s, of which UB40 were among the firmest staples. It just proved that the sky was the limit, because if one genre could travel from Jamaica to Birmingham and then to the top of the world, anything could happen.
