“Simmer Down” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

For "Simmer Down", the Mighty Mighty Bosstones went back to the very beginning of Bob Marley's story, covering the Wailers' first single on their 1993 EP Ska-Core, the Devil and More. The original, released in 1963 with the Skatalites backing the Wailers and Clement "Coxsone" Dodd producing, went to number one in Jamaica and gave Marley his first hit, and it came with a message: a plea to Jamaica's ghetto rude boys to cool off amid the violence and crime in Kingston.

It was bright, quick-stepping ska, a world away from the slower reggae that later made the Wailers famous across the globe, which makes it a sensible pick for a record with ska right there in the title. The Bosstones produced their version themselves, with Phil Greene engineering and Fred Bortolotti assisting.

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