Bet you didn’t know this was a cover song (we didn’t): Big D & The Kids Table – “Strictly Rude”

The title track on Boston ska/punk band Big D and the Kids Table is one of the most popular on the album, being a melodica-heavy laid-back return to the sound of first wave ska music. Unbeknownst to most of us, that’s because it actually IS first wave ska music (with modified lyrics).

30 years before that album, Jamaican rocksteady/reggae duo Althea & Donna released the song “Uptown Top Ranking,” which became a hit in the U.K., and apparently with Big D members a few decades later, who used the music and some of the lyrics for their song and album title (Strictly Rude comes out of the original chorus ‘strictly root’).

Listen to both versions of the song here.