Song · UB40
“If It Happens Again” by UB40
From the album Geffery Morgan (1984)
“If It Happens Again” by UB40 appears on 12 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1984 and 2005. It was first released in 1984 on the album Geffery Morgan. Its best result is #35 on the 91X Top 91 Songs of 1984. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #70 alternative song of 1984 and #1,442 alternative song of all time.
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"If It Happens Again" came off Geffery Morgan, UB40's 1984 album, but its bones were older: it began life as an instrumental called "Bouncing Around", going back to the band's beginnings in 1978. The words came later, after Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives won the 1983 UK election, and they're the sound of a man vowing to pack up and go if the country makes the same choice again.
Ali Campbell sings it with a velvet shrug that makes the anger go down easy, over a loping, heavy-lidded reggae groove from Earl Falconer's bass and Jim Brown's drums, with Robin Campbell's guitar, Michael Virtue's keys and Astro's trumpet. Howard Gray produced with the band, and the whole group shares the writing credit. It's a protest song that doesn't shout, and it went to 9 in the UK, 9 in Ireland and 8 in the Netherlands.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 97 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1984 | 106 |
| 1984 | 35 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1984 | 91 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 102 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) | 500 |
| 1991 | 109 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 1999 | 700 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 700 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 701 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 701 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 701 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2003 | 1253 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2004 | 701 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 701 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
Also listed as: If it Happens Again; If it Happens again.
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