In June 2000, Q placed The Specials at number 38 on its list of the 100 greatest British albums ever. The guy who played the flute was a member of the band King and we recorded him in the hallway with a microphone at the top of the stairs to get the natural reverb from the stairwell. British pop group Duran Duran released a cover version of the song on their 2023 Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre.

It was as if depression-era dustbowl ballads suddenly became hip again in this era of global economic meltdown.Over the last few months he has disarmed packed rooms of rowdy concert goers, leaving them silent as they hold fast to every syllable sung. The label started things off with the classic ‘Gangsters’ shortly followed by Madness’ ‘The Prince’ (a tribute to Prince Buster and the Jamaican Ska scene in general) and The Selecters’ ‘On My Radio’ Other classics which followed included ‘Too Much Too Young’ and The most famous 2 Tone release of them all; ‘Ghost Town’.

NME praised the album, saying, "Although the predominant musical influence is black ( ska, bluebeat, reggae and soul), it's wrapped in ferocious rock'n'roll: the kind of hybrid that so many other British bands have tried to contrive but, in comparison, failed to make convincing. Sounds agreed that the album had not fulfilled its potential, saying, "There are no rough edges to upset you, nothing new to shock you.producer Elvis Costello seems incapable of producing a rhythm—by that I mean pop, as well as reggae". The album features a mixture of original material and several covers of classic Jamaican ska tracks. Jerry stormed out a couple of times virtually in tears and I went after him, 'Calm down, calm down'. Collins wanted the song to sound more like a Sly and Robbie roots reggae track, so he brought a copy of a Sly and Robbie-produced single, "What a Feeling" by Gregory Isaacs, to the studio so that drummer John Bradbury could mimic the drum sound.

I remember Lynval rushing into the control room while they were doing it going, 'No, no, no, it sounds wrong! Collins took a recording of the separate tracks back to his home in Tottenham in north London where he spent three weeks mixing the song.This album embraces two decades of black and white music, gives it perspective and then goes on to reflect the modern rock'n'roll culture.