by Mark Nobes, chief editor
The Beat were, incidentally, called The English Beat in the U.S. and The British Beat in Australia.
The 2 Tone and Ska style was so completely
different to all of the disco, new wave and new romantic stuff, and it
has a timeless sound that you can still appreciate today.
I've recently been listening to this stuff again on the band's best of album, and I've come to realise that the music has such a quality to it, that it now feels refreshing and invigorating after spending years avoiding all the nonsense in the charts. It's great to listen to the 2 Tone revival era yet again.
The Beat's debut album is their finest, and is just so full of
energy. The lyrics relate well to the tough conditions of growing-up in
an early 80s city with high unemployment and social unrest - and
they're still very appropriate over three decades late.
Studio Albums
1980 I Just Can't Stop It #3 #142
1981 Wha'ppen? #3 #126
1982 Special Beat Service #21 #39
Released as The Beat feat. Ranking Roger
2016 Bounce #49
Chart positions shown are for the UK and US respectively
Although the least successful of The Beat's three studio albums released in the UK during the early 1980s, Special Beat Service was, by far, the most successful release in the U.S. reaching #39 during 1983. The front sleeve features the band leaving a Vickers VC10 aircraft.
The sixth and final track on side A, Rotating Head, was played at the end of the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The song was originally titled March of the Swivelheads and released as the B-side to Jeanette which features as the second track on the same album.
