UB40

Released: July 27, 1993

Songwriter: UB40

Producer: UB40

Please don't say sorry
Presuming a respect for what you say
If in your heart you mean it
Then you'll understand me feeling
You must prove it, sign the cheque without delay
Most humbly yours, four hundred years back pay

I'm not begging charity
Don't confuse the things I say
Give me what belongs to me
Give me what belongs to me

Just don't say sorry
As if that can excuse this tyranny
No value in your talking
Money speaks and bullshit's walking
Round in circles re-inventing history
Trying to erase our memory

I'm not begging charity
Don't confuse the things I say
Give me what belongs to me
Give me what belongs to me

If you say sorry
Can I assume you've realised the shame
The seeds of your oppression
Fall and ripen with aggression
You can't hold us any longer with your chains
Time to compensate us for our claims

Don't bother wi' no sorry
Don't bother wi' delay
A four hundred years
Is not just the other day

I'm not begging charity
Don't confuse up your mind
Payment overdue
Fe a long long time

You come a we gate
No bother hesitate
You tek away we tings
Like a damn pirate

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.

more tracks from the album

Promises and Lies

From the album

Promises and Lies (1993)

UB40 popular songs

SorryUB40

UB40

Promises and Lies