“Buffalo Gals” by Malcolm McLaren

"Buffalo Gals" came out as a single in 1982, Malcolm McLaren teaming up with the World's Famous Supreme Team, and found a home the following year on his album Duck Rock. It's a gloriously daft collision: square-dance calls hollered over a bed of turntable scratching, as if a barn dance had crashed a New York block party.

Which is more or less how it started. McLaren was in New York hunting for a support act for Bow Wow Wow when he wandered into an outdoor party thrown by Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation, heard hip-hop for the first time and came away with the scratching trick. Trevor Horn built most of the beat and the scratches, with Anne Dudley and McLaren sharing the writing credit. Charisma balked at releasing it until Kid Jensen played it on air and listeners roared back. The video, shot all over New York City, puts the Rock Steady Crew front and centre.

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