Labour of Love by UB40

Labour of Love, UB40's fourth album, came out on Virgin on 12 September 1983, and it was the British reggae band's first record made up entirely of other people's songs. The band produced it with Pablo Falconer, and they play these songs warm, loose and unhurried, as if they'd been humming them for years.

"Red Red Wine" is the one everyone knows: a lazy, loping skank with a mellow, honeyed vocal and a groove so relaxed it practically leans against the bar. It went to number one around the world. Behind it came three more UK top 20 hits, "Please Don't Make Me Cry", "Many Rivers to Cross" and "Cherry Oh Baby", each one swaying on Earl Falconer's rolling bass and Jim Brown's easy drumming.

At home it went to number one, and it did the same in New Zealand and the Netherlands, while Canada put it in the top five. America was slower to catch on: it only reached 39 at first, then climbed back onto the Billboard 200 in 1988 and got to 14 once "Red Red Wine" finally broke there. The formula worked so well that UB40 have gone back to the Labour of Love well three more times since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.