| "My Way of Thinking" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by UB40 | ||||
| A-side | "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" | |||
| Released | 6 June 1980 | |||
| Genre | Reggae | |||
| Length | 3:20 | |||
| Label | Graduate | |||
| Songwriter(s) | UB40 | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| UB40 singles chronology | ||||
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"My Way of Thinking" is a song by British reggae band UB40, released as their second single in June 1980. It was released as a double A-side with a cover of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today", and peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. [1]
After its release, guitarist Robin Campbell described the lyrics as "very sexist [and that] it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek though. The lyrics were made up in two and a half minutes to go with a tune we had". [2] After the release of their debut album, Signing Off , lead singer Ali Campbell described the song as "awful" in comparison to the songs "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and "Strange Fruit" which they had covered on the album. [3]
Interviewing UB40 for Smash Hits after the release of "My of Thinking", Mike Stand described the song as a "disappointment [and that] the weakness, I feel, comes from a lack of emotion in the words. It's very ordinary boy 'n' girl stuff – nothing wrong with that, but it's just not their style". [2] Reviewing "My Way of Thinking" for Record Mirror , Chris Westwood wrote that "UB40 reggae is barely unusually different to any other reggae; it's finely funnelled in the direction of chartland with pleasantly lilting rhythms and poking saxes [and that] it still isn't prepared to push itself hard enough to rock anyone's preconceptions, but that, of course, is hardly UB40's game". [4]
7": Graduate / GRAD 8
12": Graduate / 12 GRAD 8
| Chart (1980) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Ireland (IRMA) [5] | 12 |
| UK Singles (OCC) [1] | 6 |
| UK Independent Singles (Record Business) [6] | 2 |
UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. 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 more than 70 million records worldwide. The ethnic make-up of the band's original line-up was diverse, with musicians of English, Welsh, Irish, Jamaican, Scottish, and Yemeni parentage.
Signing Off is the debut album by British reggae band UB40, released in the UK on 29 August 1980 by Dudley-based independent label Graduate Records. It was an immediate success in their home country, reaching number 2 on the UK albums chart, and made UB40 one of the many popular reggae bands in Britain, several years before the band found international fame. The politically-concerned lyrics struck a chord in a country with widespread public divisions over high unemployment, the policies of the recently elected Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher, and the rise of the racist National Front party, while the record's dub-influenced rhythms reflected the late 1970s influence in British pop music of West Indian music introduced by immigrants from the Caribbean after the Second World War, particularly reggae and ska – this was typified by the 2 Tone movement, at that point at the height of its success and led by fellow West Midlands act The Specials, with whom UB40 drew comparisons due to their multiracial band line-up and socialist views.
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"It Keeps Rainin'" is a song recorded by Fats Domino in 1961 and written by Domino, Dave Bartholomew and Bobby Charles. It was released in the US on Imperial 5753, and in the UK on London HLP-9374, as the B-side of "I Just Cry". The song was covered by Bitty McLean in 1993, becoming a chart success in Europe and New Zealand.
Alistair Ian Campbell is an English singer and songwriter who was lead singer and co-founder of the British reggae band UB40.
"I Think It's Going to Rain Today" is a song by American singer-songwriter Randy Newman. It appears on Julius La Rosa's 1966 album You're Gonna Hear from Me, Eric Burdon's 1967 album Eric Is Here, on Newman's 1968 debut album Randy Newman, in The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1 (2003), and in Newman's official and bootleg live albums. It is one of his most covered songs.
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"Food for Thought" is a song by British reggae band UB40, released as their debut single in February 1980 from their album Signing Off. Released as a double A-side with "King", it peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart.
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