“Red Red Wine” by UB40

UB40 took "Red Red Wine" off a Neil Diamond record and carried it off to reggae country. Diamond wrote and first recorded it for his second album, Just for You, as a lament from a man who finds that red wine is the only thing that makes him forget his troubles. For their 1983 album Labour of Love, UB40 stretched it out, eased it into a lazy, rolling skank and let the melancholy melt in the heat.

It's a whole-band job, arranged by UB40 and co-produced by the group with Ray "Pablo" Falconer, Howard Gray engineering. Ali Campbell, Robin Campbell and Norman Hassan share the vocals, the Campbells' guitars chop the offbeat, Earl Falconer's bass sits deep and fat, Jim Brown handles drums and drum machine, and Brian Travers' sax and Michael Virtue's keyboards add the warmth. Then Astro jumps in with a spoken turn, and a drinking song becomes a party.

It went to No. 1 in the UK and did only moderately well in America at first, but a 1988 reissue took it all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

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