[QUOTE 3030800, member: 1314"]In fairness, UB40 covered Red Red Wine after only hearing Tony Tribe’s version. They didn’t realise N. Diamond on the credit was was Neil Diamond - so they say and I believe them.
View attachment 42500
And regarding their pop commercial reggae stuff – well, a lot of the Jamaican stuff was just that and I believe they’re fairly well received in Jamaica. Not really my thing as I preferred the more political / edgy stuff (Jimmy Cliff –‘Many Rivers’ I know, Prince Buster etc) rather than the lovers rock / poppy stuff (Ken Boothe) but, hey, I still like it. It’s part of a thing. Wouldn’t see them live, mind you, too cabaret.[/QUOTE]
Apparently in Jamaica in the late 50s/early 60s they could only receive a couple of massively powered American AM radio stations so the local rock steady/bluebeat/ska bands did versions of these songs I've got some weird ones like Country roads (take me home) by Toots & The Maytals who ,incidentally, was the first artist to mention Reggae in a song (Do The Reggae)