British Reggae group UB40’s is still ahead of the pack with their brand of reggae music as the global hit “Red Red Wine” has surpassed 500 million streams on Spotify. This is the group’s first song to achieve this milestone. The song is from the album Labour of Love their fourth studio album which was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) 35 years ago. The album was their first set of cover versions released in the UK September 27, 1983.
Group member Ali Campbell told Billboard that he was surprised to find out who wrote the song and the success of their Red Red Wine cover influenced the original writer.
“Nobody was as shocked as we were to find out that Neil Diamond wrote ‘Red Red Wine’… To me, it was always a Tony Tribe song. He sang it,” he said.
The 12″ version of “Red Red Wine” included a toasted verse by Astro, which was later copied and included by Diamond in his live set.
The band, which has seven albums surpassing one billion streams on Spotify said they had always wanted to make reggae for a wide audience. Robin Campbell said, “We actually set out in the first place to popularize reggae. That was our intention.”
His brother Ali added, “What we want to do is play heavy dub reggae. But if we came straight out doing that, it would never have gotten on the radio. We commercialize our music all the time; it’s been a series of compromises.
Robin Campbell like the other group members said he didn’t know who the original writer for Red Red Wine was.
“Absolutely no idea,” he said. “We were concerned it was a Tony Tribe song. We heard the Tony Tribe version in 1969. I think it was. I’ve still got the vinyl somewhere.”
“And it actually said when I looked on the record, it actually said ‘N Diamond’ in brackets. And I had no idea, that it still didn’t connect, that we thought it was Negus Diamond or somebody. We had no idea until after we recorded it. And for publishing reasons, we then discovered it was a Neil Diamond song, which was quite a shock.”
On November 6, 2021, Terrence Wilson aka Astro passed away suddenly, according to a statement released by the band after a brief illness.
He was a founding member of the UB40 and the second member to have passed away that year, following the death of cowriter and saxophonist Brian Travers in August.
Astro had left UB40 in 2013 – along with other founding member Ali Campbell – to form new band ‘UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro’. and that band account also put put a statement on twitter.
UB40 have sold more than 70m records and have had three UK number one hits, with 39 singles and 28 albums in the UK top 40.
UB40 is celebrating 45 years this year with a
