More Specials is a lot ska, but it also has other elements like lounge (not a fan: the song “Pearl’s Cafe” is not good), rockabilly and soul (am a fan: the track “Sock It to ’em J.B.” kicks). There’s even a touch of spaghetti western on the single “Stereotype” which hit #6 in the UK. The Specials released three other singles: the upbeat “Enjoy Yourself” (first recorded in 1949 by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians), “Rat Race” (on the US release, not the UK version) which went to #5 in the UK and to #89 on the US Dance chart, and “Do Nothing” (#4 UK).

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Frebe remixes and bonus tracks: “Twist and Crawl,” “Save It For Later,” “Psychedelic Rockers,” “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Hands Off…She’s Mine,” “Tears of a Clown,” “Too Nice to Talk To,” “March of the Swivel Heads” (probably most recognized from the final scene of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), “Drowning,” “I Confess” and “Doors of Your Heart.”

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“What’s Gone Wrong” and “The Lonely Bull” are both on their first LP Wild Child. The tracks are highly polished 80′s ska: bright horns, synths, kicked-back lilting reggae rhythms (“The Lonely Bull” is a bit more ranking full stop), rich vocals. The extended version of “What’s Gone Wrong” is, not surprisingly, longer than the album version with more instrumentation and shimmering musical effects. Overall the 12″ is pleasant enough but for me lacks the subversive political message and playfulness of their contemporaries.

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Singer/guitarist Dave Wakeling said about “Save It For Later,” “I wrote it when I was a teenager. I wrote it before The Beat started. And it was about turning from a teenager to someone in their 20s, and realizing that the effortless promise for your teenage years was not necessarily going to show that life was so simple as you started to grow up. So it was about being lost, about not really knowing your role in the world, trying to find your place in the world. So, you couldn’t find your own way in the world, and you’d have all sorts of people telling you this, that, and the other, and advising you, and it didn’t actually seem like they knew any better. So it was like keep your advice to yourself. Save it – for later.” Also, “The actual hook line itself was just a dirty joke, I just thought it was hilarious that you could get in a song: ‘save it – comma – for later – F-E-double L-A-T-O-R.’ So I thought it’d be really neat to get that in a song and everybody would be singing it. I didn’t know it was going to be a joke that lasted for 30 years.“

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Wakeling, along with The Beat’s Ranking Roger, formed General Public after The Beat’s dissolution. GP was a super-group of British new wave/ska/punk musicians: besides Wakeling and Ranking Roger, members included Mickey Billingham of Dexys Midnight Runners on keyboards, Horace Panter of The Specials on bass, Stoker of DMR and The Bureau on drums and Mick Jones of The Clash on guitar (though Jones left the group midway through the recording of All the Rage).

“Tenderness,” a poppy new wave single, made it to #27 on the charts in the US, fairing less well in the UK where it only hit #95. I remember hearing it A LOT the summer of ‘84 and at one point I know I borrowed the full length LP All the Rage, upon which “Tenderness” appeared, and probably made a cassette copy. “Limited Balance” is much more heavily reggae, a slow rock steady beat that makes me wish I was sitting on a Caribbean beach, tropical drink in hand.

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Three singles on their debut album charted in the UK: “Johnny Come Home,” “Blue” and “Suspicious Minds” (“Johnny Come Home” made it to #76 in the US). “Suspicious Minds” is a rework of the original by Mark James and made popular by Elvis; FYC pick up the ska groove and layer in Otis Redding-like vocals, strings and horns.

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Beat ska revivalists mix new wave, punk, soul and socio-political commentary into a near-perfect danceable groove. It’s almost impossible for me to narrow down my favorite tracks but if I have to choose: “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “Two Swords,” “Twist & Crawl,” “Ranking Full Stop,”  and “Whine & Grine/Stand Down Margaret” which educated my Reagan-era youth into the plight of my Thatcher-era Britain contemporaries. Allmusic’s Jo-Ann Greene writes of the record, “[it] was a stunning achievement, its driving, frenetic numbers grounded in punk’s fury smashing into the loose-limbed grooves and melodies of rocksteady inspired songs, and banging head-on into sweeter pop fueled pieces.”

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