UB40

Released: October 16, 1984

Songwriter: UB40

Producer: Howard Gray UB40

Oh doctor help me please
I'm dying, crippled with disease
My Body's aching limb to limb
My bones are glowing through my skin
When I look up into black skies
Mushrooms grow before my eyes
Doctor save me if you can
I'm a desperate man (repeat)

As he lay thinking he was dead
A burning pain short through his head
He looked into those tired old eyes
Heard forty years of anguished cries
And this doctor said

Your eyes were open
But you shut them with your mouth
You always heard
But you weren't doing the screaming
You'd only just woken
But Already, you'd forgotten
What you were dreaming

Such a sad case
The failure of a human race

UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart. They have been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album four times, and in 1984 were nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. UB40 have sold over 70 million records. The ethnic make-up of the band’s original line-up was diverse, with musicians of English, Irish, Jamaican, Scottish and Yemeni parentage.

Their hit singles include their debut “Food for Thought”, “Red Red Wine” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Both of these also topped the UK Singles Chart, as did the band’s version of “I Got You Babe”. Their two most successful albums, Labour of Love (1983) and Promises and Lies (1993), reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.

On January 24, 2008, it was announced that Ali Campbell would be leaving the group after 30 years. It was reported by some Birmingham newspapers on 13 March 2008, that Maxi Priest would be the new lead singer of UB40 and had recorded a cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” with the band.

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