Heres British reggae group UB40 with their version of Red Red Wine, which reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart on this day back in 1988. Please click on see more for more information about this song. I hope that you enjoy it!! Red Red Wine is a song written and originally recorded by American artist Neil Diamond. It has been covered by Tony Tribe, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds, and more famously by British reggae group UB40, whose version topped the U.S. and UK singles charts. Diamonds version reached number sixty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968. Diamond later performed a UB40-inspired version of the song on tour. This version was released on Diamonds The Greatest Hits (1966-1992). The lyrics are sung from the perspective of someone who finds drinking red wine the only way to forget his woes, his family feuds, his work and mainly (as sung from the song itself) a woman who lingers constantly in the mind of the one who drinks. By drinking, apparently, his woes go away and he feels a little relief, only to find that the same woman who caused him to go drinking arrives at the bar and makes him feel even worse. After drinking too much, he is tumbling on the street where he is found by his presumed father and offered a helping hand to get up. UB40 recorded their rendition for their cover versions album Labour of Love. According to the band they were only familiar with Tony Tribes version (apparently they didnt realise that the writer - credited simply as Diamond - was in fact Neil Diamond), and their version featured a lighter, reggae-style flavor compared to Diamonds somber, acoustic ballad. UB40 added a toasted verse where band member Astro chants the lines Red Red Wine, you make me feel so fine/ You keep me rocking all of the time over the melody. This verse was edited from the single which reached No.1 on the U.K. Singles Chart in August 1983, and No. 34 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in March 1984. In 1988, the song was re-released as a single in the U.S., this time including the toasted verse, and that is the version which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart on this day in that particular year.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 17:48:57 +0000