"Uptown Top Ranking" is a song by Jamaican teenage

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

s Althea Forrest and Donna Reid, recorded when they were 17 and 18 years old respectively. Released in 1977, the song comprises the girls ad-libbing to

deejay A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...

track "Three Piece Suit" by

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

. The

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...

were written by the duo and Errol Thompson. It was produced by

Joe Gibbs Joe Jackson Gibbs (born November 25, 1940) is an American auto racing team owner and former professional football coach. In football, he was head coach for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1992, and a ...

, using a re-recording of the

riddim Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm". In the context of reggae and dancehall, it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the ...

of the 1967

Alton Ellis Alton Nehemiah Ellis (1 September 1938 – 10 October 2008)Godfather ...

song "I'm Still in Love", which had already been re-popularised in the 1970s by

Marcia Aitken Marcia Aitken (born c. 1956, Hannah Town, West Kingston, Jamaica) is a reggae singer best known for her recordings in the late 1970s, produced by Joe Gibbs along with Errol Thompson.Moskowitz, David V. (2006) ''Caribbean Music: an Encyclopedia ...

's cover "I'm Still in Love With You Boy", and "Three Piece Suit" by Trinity, to which "Uptown" was an "answer record".Colin Larkin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p.10-11 The record was initially recorded as a joke. It was accidentally played by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

resulting in numerous requests for additional plays. With early championing by Peel and a performance on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, 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 ...

'', it soon became a surprise hit, reaching number one on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in February 1978. The track spent a total of 11 weeks in the charts. Althea & Donna became the youngest female duo to reach the number-one spot on the UK chart.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Sampling

The song was

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...

Abs Breen Richard Abidin Breen (born 29 June 1979), better known as Abz Love, is an English rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, producer and TV personality. Love was a member and the lead singer of the boy band Five. In 2003, Love released his debut solo albu ...

's 2002 UK top 10 hit single, " What You Got".

References