“Gangsters” by The Specials

"Gangsters" was the Specials' first single, a 1979 seven-inch on 2 Tone, cut that January in Studio One at Horizon Studios in Coventry. The first pass carried so much low end, Horace Panter recalls, that the bass bounced the needle out of the groove, so it was recut and Jerry Dammers laid a bright, trebly piano on top to compensate. Terry Hall's vocal is really two, one bored and one angry, mixed into a single deadpan sneer.

The B-side was a scramble. Tries at "Nite Klub" and "Too Much Too Young" didn't come off, so newcomer John Bradbury, who'd just stepped in for Silverton Hutchinson, offered "The Kingston Affair", an instrumental he'd made with Neol Davies in 1977. Davies added a ska rhythm guitar at Dammers' request, the tune became "The Selecter", and it went on the flip.

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