The English Beat's "Best Friend" is another perfect single

The (English) Beat : Best Friend

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In August of 1980 The Beat released the UK#22 hit "Best Friend" b/w "Stand Down Margaret (dub)", the fourth single from their chart topping debut album, I Just Can't Stop It. Remarkable considering they were just a year and a half from their first gig. The Beat announced the proceeds of the single were going to the British Anti-Nuclear Campaign as they prepared for a tour of France with The Police.

In an upcoming issue of Smash Hits Dave Wakeling answered a question about the Jamaican patois he uses in some songs.

At first I took some stick then I started pointing out Van Morrison, Mick Jagger and Tim Buckley. How did they ever get away with it?

It's like when a Roxy Music record comes on the radio and everyone sits there and gently does their impression of Bryan Ferry. It's very hard, when you come to do a Prince Buster song, to sing it as Dave Wakeling, rather than Dave Wakeling's impression of Prince Buster.

I have to add "Best Friend" is my all-time favorite song by this band. Who doesn't know someone like this: "I just found out the name of your best friend / You been talkin' 'bout yourself again". 

And "Stand Down Margaret" has to be the politest protest song on record. They even say please.

The English Beat releases a debut that ranks among the best ever

The English Beat : Best Friend

[Purchase]

In May of 1980 The English Beat released I Just Can't Stop It, their critically acclaimed debut album and a UK#3 hit. The album still thrills decades later with four memorable singles, Tears Of a Clown ( UK#6) , Hands Off...She's Mine ( UK#9) Mirror In The Bathroom (UK#4), and Best Friend (UK#22).

Shocking to think they had only been together a little more than a year. The band was smart enough to found their own label, Go-Feet, which served as a buffer between The Beat and the major labels and gave the band the right to choose not just what singles they'd be releasing but the artwork. The  dancing girl is a nod to the young women who had come to see their shows.

The album thrilled critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone's Frank Rose wrote:

"They may be primitive, but they certainly aren't simple. I Just Can't Stop It is the most exhilarating surprise from Britain since Marianne Faithfull's Broken English."

The Village Voice's Robert Chrtistgau gave the album a grade of A-, writing:

Known simply as the Beat in England, and rightly so--their ska is deep and driven. Thank drummer Everett Martin, born St. Kitt's 1951, with roots from reggae to Armatrading, and bassist David Steele, born Isle of Wight 1960, who's parlayed the usual classical training into a rhythm kid's twist and crawl. That's a title, of course, naming a bass line that moved more feet than anything Bernard Edwards came up with in 1980. Riding atop the full frontal velocity are two lean, warm, modest voices, almost indistinguishable until Ranking Roger turns up the accent. Hidden below it are songs, most of them by covocalist David Wakeling. Lyric of the electoral year: "Stand Down Margaret."

And this from Smash Hits:

The English Beat score a UK#4 hit with "Mirror In The Bathroom"

The English Beat : Mirror In The Bathroom

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On April 28 The English Beat had a new single in the UK charts. "Mirror In The Bathroom" debuted at UK#58 but it would peak at UK#4, the Beat's highest charting single until a slightly remixed version of "Can't Get Used to Losing You" returned to the charts in 1983. 

Dave Wakeling told A.V. Club how he came up with the lyrics :

The lyrics were written when I was working on a construction site. I’d had a couple of drinks the night before, and forgot to hang up my clothes to dry for the next day. It gets very wet on those construction sites, and it was the winter, so it was a snowy wet. I got into the bathroom and realized my clothes were all on the floor in a wet, sandy pile. So I hung them up and thought, “Well, if I steam them, at least I’ll be puttin’ ’em on warm.” I had a shower, and then I was shaving in the mirror, with the hangover and the wet clothes, and the thought of trying to break up frozen sand to put into the concrete machine was not that tasty. And I started talking to myself in the mirror, and said, “Dave, we don’t have to do this, mate. We don’t have to do this.” And in the mirror behind me, the door of the bathroom had a tiny little latch on it, and I said to myself, “The door’s locked. There’s only me and you. Just me and you here. We don’t have to do this.” And of course we did, because we needed money for Guinness that night. [Laughs.] 

 So on the motorbike we got, and skidded our way back to the construction site. And while I was on the bike, I was pondering it. “The door is locked, just you and me.” Had a nice feel to it. “Mirror In The bathroom.” That’s a great idea, but you can’t have a pop song called “Mirror In The Bathroom,” can you? That’s stupid. You’re meant to have pop songs called, “I Love You, Lady,” or something. Anyway the poem started, and continued during the day, and kept me warm while my clothes weren’t, and I’d got the germ of it from there. And when I heard David Steele’s bassline, I was like, “Wow, that poem I was writing on the motorbike fits it like a glove.” 

The B-side, "Jackpot", is a cover of a 1968 song by the Jamaican ska trio, The Pioneers.