"One Step Beyond" is a tune written by Jamaican

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

singer

Prince Buster Cecil Bustamente Campbell (24 May 1938 – 8 September 2016), known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary ...

as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

for his 1964 single "

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

". It was covered by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

band Madness for their debut studio album of the same name (1979). Although Buster's version was mostly

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

except for the song title shouted for a few times, the Madness version features a spoken intro by

Chas Smash Cathal Joseph "Carl" Smyth (born 14 January 1959), also known as Chas Smash, is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His career spans more than 40 years. Smash came to prominence in the late 1970s as secondary vocalist, trump ...

and a barely audible but insistent background chant of "here we go!". The spoken line, "Don't watch that, watch this", in the intro is from another

song, "Scorcher" — and is also used at the start of

Dave and Ansell Collins Dave and Ansell Collins are a Jamaican vocal/instrumental duo (sometimes billed as Dave and Ansil Collins or Dave and Ansel Collins). History Dave Barker (born David John Crooks, 10 October 1947, Kingston, Jamaica) is a session vocalist, and ...

' "Funky Funky Reggae" — whilst the next line "This is a heavy heavy monster sound" is taken from another Dave and Ansell Collins song, "Monkey Spanner". The first of those also became a trademark during the early promos of

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, where the video was in heavy rotation. According to

Alan Winstanley Alan Kenneth Winstanley (born 2 November 1952) is an English record producer and songwriter, active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer. His early career during the mid-1970s was as an audio engineer, working on album ...

, one of the producers, the released Madness version was a rough mix, created by taking the original 1 minute 10 second instrumental and repeating it, with the second half treated with an

Eventide Eventide, an archaic word for evening, may also refer to: * ''Eventide'' (EP), a 1998 EP by Monique Brumby * ''Eventide'' (''Magic: The Gathering''), a 2008 trading card expansion set * '' Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union'', an 1878 pa ...

harmonizer Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval ( transposition) are called pitch shifters. Pitch and ti ...

to make it sound slightly different. Langer and Winstanley intended to do a full remix but found that the double-length rough mix had already been sent for mastering before they got the opportunity. The song is often used to begin live performances by the band.

Music video

The single produced the band's first

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, directed by Chuck Statler. The video mainly features a performance on the Hope and Anchor stage in Islington, which was filmed on 7 October 1979. The video also features

, performing the lead vocals, although he was not at the time a member of the band. Lead singer

Suggs Graham McPherson (born 13 January 1961), known primarily by his stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor from Hastings, England. In a music career spanning 40 years, he came to prominence in the ...

is present in the video in front of the band, holding a microphone, although he does not sing the lead vocals.

Cover art

The

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

for the single is from a photoshoot by

Cameron McVey Cameron Andrew McVey (born 11 March 1957) is an English singer, songwriter and music producer. He worked with the bands Massive Attack, Portishead, All Saints, Sugababes/Mutya Keisha Siobhan and his wife Neneh Cherry. He is the father of Ma ...

. It is similar to the photograph used on the album cover art, but features the band in a slightly different pose. The Spanish release of the song also featured slightly different cover art, although the photograph used was from the same photoshoot. Even though the lyrics are performed by

, he does not feature on the photograph, because he was not a full member of the band at the time. However, he is shown on the back cover of the album in various dancing poses. The Italian version features a two-tone drawing of the pose containing only four dancers.

Other versions

The album version of the song features the full spoken introduction by Chas Smash. However, this was cut short for the single release. When the song is performed live, Smash regularly ad libs during the instrumental portions of the song. To capitalise on the success of the song, Madness also recorded the song in different languages. The song was recorded in Spanish as "Un Paso Adelante" and in Italian as "Un Passo Avanti". Chas Smash recorded the vocals for the Spanish version on 30 June 1980 at Eden Studios. The band decided to record the song because many popular English songs at the time were being covered by Spanish artist

Luis Cobos Luis Cobos (born October 30, 1948) is a Spanish composer, conductor and musician. He is chairman of the management entity performers (AIE) and the chairman of the board of the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. He was married to the sin ...

, and the band wanted to do it first. The Italian version, "Un Passo Avanti", was used to open up during the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

part of their world tour, in October 1980. An extended version of the song, with a run time of 3:33, is included on the 1997 US compilation ''Total Madness: The Very Best of Madness'' (Geffen GEFD-25145). It includes the full spoken introduction by Chas Smash.

Appearances

In addition to its single release and appearance on the album of the same name, "One Step Beyond" 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 Too'', '' Total Madness'', '' The Business'' (which also includes the Italian version), ''Ultimate Collection'' and ''The Millennium Collection''. The Spanish version appears on the 1992 releases of the "

House of Fun "House of Fun" is a song by English ska/pop group Madness, credited to Mike Barson and Lee Thompson. Retrieved on 28 June 2007. It was released as a one-off single on 14 May 1982 and reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, spending nine w ...

" single. It is also used to open concerts live, and has been since the very first ''

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 ...

''. It has also being recorded in the intro of Papashanty SaundSystem songs "Wo no no" in 2005.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "One Step Beyond". ;7" vinyl ;12" vinyl

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1979 songs 1979 singles Madness (band) songs Stiff Records singles Number-one singles in France Songs written by Prince Buster Song recordings produced by Clive Langer Song recordings produced by Alan Winstanley