This week in 1982
1 Pass The Dutchie Musical Youth
2 The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) The Jam 3 Zoom Fat Larry’s Band
4 Eye of the Tiger Survivor
5 There It Is Shalamar
6 Walking on Sunshine Rocker’s Revenge feat Donnie Calvin
7 Love Come Down Evelyn King
8 Private Investigations Dire Straits
9 Friend or Foe Adam Ant
10 Why Carly Simon
Musical Youth’s biggest selling song was partially based on ‘Pass The Kouchie’, a song by Jamaican harmony trio, Mighty Diamonds, about the recreational use of cannabis (kouchie is slang for a cannabis pipe). Shrewdly, Musical Youth dropped any drug references in the lyrics, their ‘dutchie’ being a cooking pot. There’s little doubt that if they hadn’t, the song would not have been the four million-plus seller it was in the autumn of 1982 and through the following year. ‘Pass The Dutchie’, from Musical Youth’s debut album ‘The Youth Of Today’, entered the UK charts at number 26 on its release - a week later it rocketed to number one. Some months later it reached the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. It was also a No. 1 hit in five other countries, including Ireland. Musical Youth had a few more hit singles before their 1985 break-up, but ‘Pass The Dutchie’ was their only number one. They reformed in 2001 and continue to perform today.