"Baggy Trousers" is a song by English ska/pop band Madness from their 1980 album '' Absolutely''. It was written by lead singer Graham "Suggs" McPherson and guitarist

Chris Foreman Christopher John Foreman (born 8 August 1956), nicknamed Chrissy Boy, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Foreman came to prominence in the late 1970s as the guitarist for the Engli ...

,Woodstra, Chris. Retrieved on 1 July 2007. and reminisces about school days. (

Mike Barson Michael Barson (born 21 April 1958) is a Scottish-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Barson came to prominence in the late 1970s as the keyboard player for the band Madness. Early y ...

also received a writing credit in error, the correct McPherson/Foreman credit being used for subsequent releases). The band first began performing the song at live shows in April 1980. Retrieved on 1 July 2007. It was released as a single on 5 September 1980 and spent 20 weeks in UK charts, reaching a high of #3. It was the 28th best-selling single of 1980 in the UK. In October 2017, American punk rock/hip hop band the Transplants released a cover version of the song on their ''Take Cover'' EP.

Music and lyrics

Suggs later recalled in an interview that "I was very specifically trying to write a song in the style of

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads ...

, especially the songs he was writing then, which ereoften sort of catalogues of phrases in a constant stream."Young Guns go for it: Madness
(BBC documentary) He contrasted "Baggy Trousers" with Pink Floyd's hit

Another Brick in the Wall "Another Brick in the Wall" is a three-part composition on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera '' The Wall,'' written by bassist Roger Waters. "Part 2", a protest song against corporal punishment, and rigid and abusive schooling, features a chil ...

: "I was writing about my time at school. Pink Floyd had that big hit with 'teacher, leave those kids alone'. It didn't really relate to me, because I hadn't been to a

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

where I was bossed about and told to sing '

Rule Britannia! "Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the 1740 poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in the same year. It is most strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but is also used by the ...

' and all that", having instead attended a comprehensive school with much less strictly enforced discipline.

Music video

The music video of the song was shot in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the open ...

in north west London: at the Kentish Town C of E primary school on Islip Street and the Peckwater Estate. The band's

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

player, Lee Thompson decided he wanted to fly through the air for his solo, with the use of wires hanging from a crane. This was inspired by seeing Peter Gabriel flying during a Genesis concert. Thompson recreated the moment live at the band's reunion concert in 1992,

Madstock! ''Madstock!'' is the first live album by ska/ pop band Madness, released on 2 November 1992 (see 1992 in music) by Go! Discs. The album includes highlights from Madness' first concerts since their disbanding in 1986, on 8 and 9 August 1992 at ...

, during the band's 2007 Christmas tour, and the 2009 Glastonbury Festival as well as in a 2011 TV advert for

Kronenbourg 1664 Kronenbourg 1664 is a golden pale lager with an alcohol percentage of 5.5% ABV in continental Europe and 5.0% for the UK market. It was first brewed in 1664 by Canon Brewery in the Alsace region of France by master brewer Geronimus Hatt. It uses ...

in which the band plays a slow version of "Baggy Trousers". The slow version was later released on the box set ''A Guided Tour of Madness'' under the title "Le Grand Pantalon". The video received great positive response from the public, and was particularly important as it demonstrated the potential for television shows such as ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

'' to show a band's music videos instead of having them perform live. Following the release of "Baggy Trousers", the public began to anticipate future Madness music videos.

Appearances

In addition to its single release and appearance on the album ''Absolutely'', "Baggy Trousers" also appears on the Madness collections '' Divine Madness'' (a.k.a. ''The Heavy Heavy Hits''), ''

Complete Madness ''Complete Madness'' is the first greatest hits album by ska/pop group Madness. It was released in 1982 and included Madness' biggest hits from their first three studio albums and the stand-alone singles. ''Complete Madness'' spent 99 weeks on th ...

'', '' It's... Madness'', '' Total Madness'', '' The Business'' and '' Our House: the Best of Madness''. Its only appearance on a US Madness compilation is on ''Ultimate Collection''. The song was featured in the 2001 film '' Mean Machine'', and was included in the accompanying

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

.Mean Machine OST. Audio CD, Redemption, 2004, ASIN: B00005Y48T In 2011, the song was slowed down to half its normal speed and was used for an advert for the

'Slow' campaign (see above). In 1983, Colgate used the song's melody in a television advertisement written by Jay Pond-Jones and Ric Cooper in which a group of kids including actor

Lee Ross Lee David Ross (August 25, 1942 – May 14, 2021) was a Canadian-American professor. He held the title of the Stanford Federal Credit Union Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University and was an influential social psychologist wh ...

sing newly written lyrics about Colgate Blue Minty Gel toothpaste, a variant of which was later used in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The advert was seen as groundbreaking but had to be pre-approved by the band. Pond-Jones said, "Many years later ... I found out how they actually quite liked it. Even now, Carl from the band introduces me to people as “the bloke who did the Colgate ad”."

Track listing

7"

12" (Record Store Day 2022)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

* {{authority control 1980 singles Madness (band) songs Songs written by Suggs (singer) Songs written by Mike Barson Songs written by Chris Foreman Songs about school Songs about nostalgia 1980 songs Stiff Records singles Song recordings produced by Clive Langer Song recordings produced by Alan Winstanley