Specials (album)

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Specials

Studio album by The Specials
Released	November 1979
Recorded	1979
Genre	Two tone
Length	40:46
Label	2Tone Records
Producer(s)	Elvis Costello and The Specials
All Music Guide link
The Specials chronology
	Specials (1979)	More Specials (1980)

Specials is the debut album by British ska revival band, The Specials.

Released in 1979 on Jerry Dammers' 2Tone label, the album is seen by some as the defining moment in the UK ska scene. Produced by Elvis Costello, the album captures the disaffection and anger felt by the youth of the UK's "concrete jungle" - a phrase borrowed from Bob Marley's 1972 album Catch A Fire but equally apposite used here to describe the grim, violent inner cities of Thatcherite Britain.

Musically, the album encapsulates the wave of British ska, greatly reworking the original sound of 1960s Jamaican ska. The music shares the infectious energy and humour of the original sound, but injects new-found anger and punk sensibility. The album features a mixture of original material and several covers of classic Jamaican ska tracks, a debt which went uncredited on the 1979 vinyl release.

The band's first single, "Gangsters," is not only a reworking of Prince Buster's "Al Capone", but also "samples" the car sound effects that opened the original song. "One Step Beyond", the B-side to "Al Capone" on Prince Buster's 1964 Blue Beat single would also prove a ska revival hit for the Specials' contemporaries, Madness. Of other covers on the Specials' debut album, "Monkey Man" had been a hit for Toots and the Maytals in 1969, "Too Hot" was a Prince Buster original from 1966, and the opening track, "A Message to You, Rudy" was a Dandy Livingstone single in 1967. "You're Wondering Now" was originally performed by the Skatalites; a vocal version was recorded by duo Andy and Joey in 1964. Other tracks are reworkings of Jamaican originals; "Too Much Too Young" was based on Lloyd Charmers' "Birth Control," "Stupid Marriage" draws heavily on the Prince Buster hit "Judge Dread".

A live version of "Too Much Too Young" was later released on a four track EP and was banned by the BBC for its pro-contraception lyrics. Nonetheless, the single went all the way to #1 on the UK charts. A Message to You Rudy/Nite Klub was also released as a single.

Trombonist Rico Rodriguez, who performed on many 50s and 60s Jamaican recordings before moving to London in 1962, played on the band's version of "A Message to You, Rudy," as he had on the original recording fifteen years previously. As a former member of the legendary Skatalites, a band that helped define the sound of ska and reggae, Rico's appearance on the album considerably added to the album's credentials.

In 2000 Q magazine placed Specials at number 38 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.