This week in 1982
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Musical Youth
Fat Larry’s Band Survivor Shalamar Rocker’s Revenge feat Donnie Calvin Evelyn King
Dire Straits Adam Ant 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.