"Uptown Top Rankin" @ Amazon
Oh Dread
Up Town Top Ranking
No More Fighting
Career
The young Jamaican
singers Althea Forrest (17), and
Donna Reid (18), caused a surprise with their one-off reggae
hit single, "Uptown Top Ranking". It was
produced by
Joe Gibbs[1] using a
re-recording of the
riddim of the 1967
Alton Ellis' song "I'm Still In Love", which had already been re-popularised in the 1970s by Marcia Aitken's cover "I'm Still In Love With You Boy" and the
deejay track "Three Piece Suit" by
Trinity. The
single's
UK release was on the Lightning
record label.
[1]
"Uptown Top Ranking" reached
number one in the
UK Singles Chart in February 1978,
[1] after early championing by
BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, but had only one week at the chart summit.
[2] Oddly the surprise was compounded by the act often being billed as 'Althia & Donna', and the
song sometimes entitled slightly differently, as "Up Town Top Ranking". The
lyrics were written by the duo and
Errol Thompson.
[1][3] Althea & Donna thus became the youngest female duo to reach the pinnacle of the
UK chart.
[3]
They released the
album of the same name in 1978, but never met with any more tangible success thereafter.
[edit] "Uptown Top Ranking"
The various incarnations of the riddim have been used for at least three dozen different records in its native Jamaica, since it was first recorded in 1967.[
citation needed]
"Uptown Top Ranking" has been
covered by
Sean Paul;
Scout Niblett, who released it as a
single in 2004;
Black Box Recorder on their
album England Made Me; and by the
German record producer Joni Rewind in 2002, featuring the
vocals of
Estelle.
Ska punk band Big D and the Kids Table reworked "Uptown Top Ranking" with new lyrics and a new title, "Strictly Rude", from their
album of the same name. The song was
sampled for
Abs Breen's 2002 UK
Top 10 hit single, "
What You Got".
Portishead covered "Uptown Top Ranking" in the late '90s.
In 2003, Althea & Donna's original version appeared on the
Soul Jazz Records compilation album,
300% Dynamite!, and the track also appeared on the 2005
Australian compilation,
Bondi Calling 3.
"Uptown Top Ranking" was featured in 'The Dream Team', episode 47 of the
American HBO,
Emmy Award winning
television program,
Entourage. In addition, the song also featured in series 2 episode 8, of the
British BAFTA Award winning comedic
teen drama,
Skins.
A sample of the "No Pop, No Style"
refrain from the
record is used and forms part of the
lyrics to
Pop Will Eat Itself's 1991 single, "X, Y & Zee".