Song · Madness
“Night Boat to Cairo” by Madness
From the album One Step Beyond… (1979)
“Night Boat to Cairo” by Madness appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2002 and 2023. It was first released in 1979 on the album One Step Beyond…. Its best result is #152 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,929 alternative song of all time.
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"Night Boat to Cairo" sailed out on One Step Beyond..., the 1979 debut album from British ska upstarts Madness. Mike Barson and Suggs wrote it, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley produced, and the whole gang is on deck: Suggs singing with Lee Thompson, who also blows baritone and tenor sax, Barson on keyboards, Chris Foreman on guitar, Mark Bedford on bass, Daniel Woodgate on drums and percussion, and Cathal Smyth on backing vocals.
It got a second wind the following year on the Work Rest and Play EP, which went to 6 on the UK singles chart, and it has never really docked since. The band often use it to close their shows, a 1993 reissue scraped to 56, and it has even slipped into cockney rhyming slang, where a "Night Boat" is a giro, the dole cheque.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 1042 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 692 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2023 | 152 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
Also listed as: Night Boat To Cairo.
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