Artist · chart history · #113 in alternative artist polls · #580 in indie & aaa artist polls
UB40
Band Birmingham United Kingdom Formed 1978
UB40 formed in 1978 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. UB40 has 160 chart appearances on 81 radio countdowns from 19 stations on RockLists, spanning 1983–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Red Red Wine”, which appears on 49 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted UB40 most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 43 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1990.
UB40 came together in Birmingham in December 1978, a band whose original members had English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Jamaican and Yemeni roots, and they made reggae and dub that sounded as if it had grown up in the Midlands rain. Ali Campbell sang up front, Robin Campbell played guitar, Jim Brown drums, Earl Falconer bass, Norman Hassan percussion and Brian Travers saxophone, with Mickey Virtue on keyboards and Astro alongside them, and that lineup held together from March 1979 all the way to January 2008.
Their first track, "Food for Thought", got them going, and Present Arms in 1981 carried "One in Ten". Then came Labour of Love in 1983, one of their 2 most successful albums and a UK number one, and its "Red Red Wine" topped the charts in Britain and on the Billboard Hot 100: a lazy, loping groove with Ali Campbell's smooth, sweet voice gliding over the top. "Cherry Oh Baby" came from the same record. "I Got You Babe", cut with Chrissie Hynde for Baggariddim in 1985, went to number one in Britain as well.
The records kept coming through Geffery Morgan, Rat in the Kitchen, the self-titled UB40 in 1988 with "Where Did I Go Wrong?" and "Breakfast in Bed", and Labour of Love II in 1989 with "The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)". Promises and Lies, in 1993, gave them their second UK number-one album, and their take on "Can't Help Falling in Love" topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. All told they have put more than 50 singles on the UK chart, spent 214 weeks there in the '80s, a record for a group they share with Madness, drawn 4 Grammy nominations for Best Reggae Album and sold more than 100 million records.
Ali Campbell left in January 2008, Virtue soon after, and Astro followed in November 2013 to join them in a rival outfit billed as UB40 featuring Ali Campbell. The original band, with Duncan Campbell now singing, went to the lawyers over the name in 2014, and when Duncan retired through ill health, Matt Doyle took over, as announced on 5 July 2021. On the countdowns, "Red Red Wine" is still the one they pour first.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by UB40 on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Red Wine | 49 | #1 | 1 | 1983 | |
| 2 | Here I Am (Come and Take Me) | 18 | #18 | – | 1990 | |
| 3 | The Way You Do The Things You Do | 22 | #20 | – | 1990 | |
| 4 | If It Happens Again | 12 | #35 | – | 1984 | |
| 5 | Rat In The Kitchen | 12 | #227 | – | – | |
| 6 | I Got You Babe | 6 | #29 | – | 1985 | |
| 7 | Breakfast in Bed | 5 | #26 | – | 1988 | |
| 8 | Can't Help Falling in Love | 4 | #27 | – | 1993 | |
| 9 | Where Did I Go Wrong? | 4 | #8 | – | 1988 | |
| 10 | One In Ten | 5 | #795 | – | – | |
| 11 | Don't Break My Heart | 3 | #91 | – | 1987 | |
| 12 | Cherry Oh Baby | 2 | #885 | – | – | |
| 13 | Higher Ground | 2 | #60 | – | 1993 | |
| 14 | Please Don't Make Me Cry | 1 | #42 | – | 1983 | |
| 15 | Kingston Town | 1 | #139 | – | – | |
| 16 | Come Out and Play | 1 | #268 | – | – | |
| 17 | Watchdogs | 1 | #50 | – | 1986 | |
| 18 | Higher Grounds | 1 | #74 | – | 1993 | |
| 19 | Sing Our Own Song | 2 | #377 | – | – | |
| 20 | Groovin | 1 | #75 | – | 1991 | |
| 21 | I've Got Mine | 1 | #376 | – | – | |
| 22 | Rat in Mi Kitchen | 1 | #376 | – | – | |
| 23 | I Got Mine | 1 | #455 | – | – | |
| 24 | Come Out to Play | 1 | #104 | – | 1988 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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