1. UB40 - King (January 1980) UK Graduate GRAD 6

What a start to the new decade - the knock-out debut single from a British interracial reggae outfit!  In Britain, UB40 (with minimal lineup changes) would spend the next 30 years charting in the Top 50.  They would also score several Top 10 hits in the US in the late 1980s and 1990s.

But this debut was impressive.  Even more impressive when you consider that this was a double A-sided hit (with "Food For Thought").  This, like much of their material up to 1983, is a politically oriented - choosing to lament Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:  "King, where are your people now? / Chained and pacified.  / Tried in vain to show them how. / And for that you died."  This is definitely not your party-time ganga music!  And the music is almost dour, with horns, guitars and keyboards sharply guiding the rhythm.

The single peaked at No. 4 in the UK on 4/19/1980.

Unreleased in the USA until the fine 1983 compilation by A&M simply titled UB40 1980-1983.  Now available on numerous collections - although you should seek out (and own) their debut Signing Off.