Terence Wilson, of the band UB40, passes

As Terence Wilson, aka Astro, told the story, he and his reggae band, UB40, didn’t even know whose song they were covering when they decided to record what became perhaps their biggest hit. They’d been smitten by a ska version of the song “Red Red Wine,” which was recorded by Tony Tribe in 1969.

The seven-inch vinyl carried the credit “N. Diamond,” Wilson said, and he and his bandmates assumed that it referred to a Jamaican artist named Negus Diamond.

“You could’ve knocked us out with a feather when we found out it was actually Neil Diamond,” he told Billboard in 2018.

The song was included on UB40’s 1983 album of covers, “Labour of Love,” and a pared-down version released as a single became a modest hit. Then, five years later, the longer version became an even bigger hit. Ali Campbell is the main vocalist on both, but the longer version includes Wilson’s distinctive toasting, or rapped vocals, which begin, “Red red wine, you make me feel so fine; you keep me rocking all of the time.”

How popular did that rendition become? So popular that Diamond took to performing the song — which he’d originally rendered as a glum ballad — with a catchy reggae beat and including a toasting section in which he imitated Wilson’s cadence. “Red red wine you make me feel so fine, hear it on the radio all of the time,” Diamond sang in Buffalo, New York, in 1989. “I don’t care if the words are all wrong; I don’t care ’cause they’re playing my song!”

Wilson died, Nov. 6, Campbell announced on social media. He was 64. No cause of death was given, and the posts did not say where he died.

Wilson joined Campbell and six others in UB40 in 1978 in Birmingham, England. None had extensive music backgrounds, but they developed their own sound and style; Wilson was the toaster, trumpeter and percussionist.

The eight were a racially diverse group, unusual for the reggae genre, most of whose stars were Black; Wilson was one of two Black members. But they were united by one thing when they came together: All were unemployed. The group’s name came from a bit of government paperwork, Unemployment Benefit Form 40.

Soon UB40 was famous and touring the world. Interviewed in 2005 by The Dominion Post of New Zealand on the occasion of the release of the group’s 23rd album, Wilson put his change in fortunes simply: “It is like winning the lottery every week.”