The Specials - Ghost Town (TOTP)

The Specials lip syncing their classic number one single Ghost Town on Top Of the Pops in july 1981. UK 2 Tone CHS TT17 7" Released: 20 June 1981 A side Ghost Town B side Why? Friday Night, Saturday Morning Ghost Town marked the pinnacle of the labels achievements. Critics have called it "one of few singles to reflect perfectly a period in history" and "one of the most important records of our time". Released at a time when Prince Charles and Lady Diana were about to marry and inner city riots swept Britain the single summed up perfectly the irony of the whole period. It stayed on the number 1 spot for 3 weeks and became the labels first single to sell a million copies and also marked the first UK 12 inch from 2 Tone. With the exception of Dance Craze 2 Tone had been very quiet throughout the first half of 1981 and friction was becoming apparent within the Specials camp. According to Terry Hall the recording of the single was dogged by bad feeling among the various band members even getting to the stage were they wouldn&go into the studio together. The arrangements of the singles&others tracks also caused ill feeling. Terry Hall would have preferred his composition Friday Night Saturday Morning to have consisted of just him and a piano in a pub sing-a-long type fashion but in the end he had to make do with version which was released. The structure of the song Ghost Town has also been a topic of conversation. The typical format of verse-chorus-verse was set aside...