"
One Step Beyond" is a song originally written by Jamaican
skaSka is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
singer
Prince BusterCecil Bustamente Campbell, O.D. , better known as Prince Buster and also known by his Muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music...
as a B-side for his single "Al Capone". It was made famous by
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
band
MadnessMadness are a British pop/ska band from Camden Town, London, that formed in 1976. In 2009, the band have continued to perform with their most recognised lineup of seven members, although their lineup has varied slightly over the years. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late-1970s 2...
who covered it for their debut 1979 album
One Step Beyond..."In the Middle of the Night" redirects here. For the novel by Robert Cormier, see In the Middle of the Night .One Step Beyond... is the 1979 debut album by the British ska group Madness. It was ranked 90th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums...
also named after the song. Although Buster's version was mostly
instrumentalRock Instrumentals have a separate page.An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music rather than to other musical genres such as European...
except for the song title shouted for a few times, the Madness version features a spoken intro by
Chas SmashCarl Smyth, also known as Chas Smash is an English musician, best known as a backing singer and dancer in the ska/pop band Madness. He also plays trumpet, acoustic guitar and various percussion instruments...
and a barely audible but insistent background chant of "here we go!".
According to
Alan WinstanleyAlan Kenneth Winstanley is a British record producer active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer.-Notable studio albums produced by Alan Winstanley and Clive Langer:* One Step Beyond... – Madness...
, one of the producers, the released version was a rough mix, created by taking the original 1 minute 10 second instrumental and repeating it, with the second half treated with an Eventide Harmonizer to make it sound slightly different.
"
One Step Beyond" is a song originally written by Jamaican
skaSka is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
singer
Prince BusterCecil Bustamente Campbell, O.D. , better known as Prince Buster and also known by his Muslim name Muhammed Yusef Ali, is a musician from Kingston, Jamaica is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of ska and rocksteady music...
as a B-side for his single "Al Capone". It was made famous by
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
band
MadnessMadness are a British pop/ska band from Camden Town, London, that formed in 1976. In 2009, the band have continued to perform with their most recognised lineup of seven members, although their lineup has varied slightly over the years. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late-1970s 2...
who covered it for their debut 1979 album
One Step Beyond..."In the Middle of the Night" redirects here. For the novel by Robert Cormier, see In the Middle of the Night .One Step Beyond... is the 1979 debut album by the British ska group Madness. It was ranked 90th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums...
also named after the song. Although Buster's version was mostly
instrumentalRock Instrumentals have a separate page.An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music rather than to other musical genres such as European...
except for the song title shouted for a few times, the Madness version features a spoken intro by
Chas SmashCarl Smyth, also known as Chas Smash is an English musician, best known as a backing singer and dancer in the ska/pop band Madness. He also plays trumpet, acoustic guitar and various percussion instruments...
and a barely audible but insistent background chant of "here we go!".
According to
Alan WinstanleyAlan Kenneth Winstanley is a British record producer active from the mid-1970s onwards. He usually works with Clive Langer.-Notable studio albums produced by Alan Winstanley and Clive Langer:* One Step Beyond... – Madness...
, one of the producers, the released version was a rough mix, created by taking the original 1 minute 10 second instrumental and repeating it, with the second half treated with an Eventide Harmonizer to make it sound slightly different.
LangerClive Langer is a British record producer active from the mid 1970s onwards. He usually works with Alan Winstanley. He composed the music for the films, Still Crazy and Brothers of the Head. Prior to his record producing career, he is a guitarist with the British cult band, Deaf SchoolLanger...
and Winstanley intended to do a full remix but found that the double-length rough mix had already been sent for mastering before they got the opportunity.
The song is often used to begin live performances by the band.
Music video
The single produced the band's first
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
, directed by Chuck Stadler. The video mainly features a performance on the
Hope and Anchor stage in IslingtonThe Hope and Anchor is a public house on Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. During the mid-1970s it was one of the first pubs to embrace the emergent, but brief, phenomenon of pub rock...
, which was filmed on 7 October 1979. The video also features Chas Smash, performed the lead vocal chant, although he was not at the time a member of the band. Lead singer
SuggsGraham McPherson , better known as Suggs, is an English singer, actor, former radio DJ, TV personality, and most famous as the frontman of the band Madness.-Solo career:...
is present in the video in front of the band, holding a microphone, although he does not sing the lead vocals.
Cover art
The
cover artCover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book, magazine, comic book, product package, video game, DVD, CD, videotape, audio album, manual or brochure.One type of cover art is that of CDs or DVDs...
for the single is from a photoshoot by
Cameron McVeyCameron Andrew McVey is a British music producer, best known for his work with Neneh Cherry, Massive Attack, Portishead, All Saints, and Sugababes.-Family:...
. It is similar to the
photographA photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
used on the album cover art, but features the band in a slightly different pose. The
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
release of the song also featured slightly different cover art, although the photograph used was from the same photoshoot. Even though the lyrics are performed by Chas Smash, he does not feature on the photograph, because he was not a full member of the band at the time. However, he is shown on the back cover of the album in various dancing poses.
Other versions
The album version of the song features the full spoken introduction by Chas Smash. However, this was cut short for the single release. When the song is performed live, Smash regularly ad libs during the instrumental portions of the song.
To capitalise on the success of the song, Madness also recorded the song in different languages. The song was recorded in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
as "Un Paso Adelante" and in
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
as "Un Passo Avanti". Chas Smash recorded the vocals for the Spanish version on 30 June 1980 at Eden Studios. The band decided to record the song because many popular English songs at the time were being covered by Spanish artist "Luis Cobos", and the band wanted to do it first. The Italian version, "Un Passo Avanti", was used to open up during the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
part of their world tour, in October 1980.
The song has been adopted as an anthem by Carlisle United Football Club, with a special intro recorded by Chas Smash for the club.
Appearances
In addition to its single release and appearance on the album of the same name, "One Step Beyond" also appears on the Madness collections
Divine MadnessDivine Madness is the 1992 greatest hits album from the British ska/pop band Madness. It presents the group's single A-sides in chronological order, though sometimes in their LP rather than single versions....
(a.k.a.
The Heavy Heavy Hits),
Complete MadnessComplete Madness is the first greatest hits album by ska/pop group Madness. It was released in 1982 and included Madness' biggest hits from their first three studio albums and all the stand-alone singles. Complete Madness spent 88 weeks on the UK charts peaking at number 1...
,
It's... Madness TooIt's... Madness Too is a compilation album by the British pop band Madness, released in 1991. It combines some of the band's hit singles and b-sides and is a sequel to It's.....
,
Total MadnessTotal Madness - the Very Best of Madness is a greatest hits album by a British ska/pop band Madness. It was released in 1997 in United States only.-Track listing:# "Our House"# "It Must Be Love"# "Tomorrow's "# "Shut Up"# "Grey Day"...
,
The BusinessThe Business - the Definitive Singles Collection is a 3 disc box set by ska/pop band Madness released in 1993 . It contains all the band's singles with their b-sides and other bonus tracks, some rare. It also includes a 52 page booklet and snippets of interviews with people associated with Madness...
(which also includes the Italian version),
Ultimate Collection and
The Millennium Collection. The Spanish version appears on the 1992 releases of the "
House of Fun"House of Fun" is a song by British ska/pop group Madness, credited to Mike Barson and Lee Thompson. It was released as a one-off single on April 30, 1982, and reached #1 in the UK charts, spending 9 weeks in the charts. The song was re-released in 1992, reaching #40...
" single.
Formats and track listings
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "One Step Beyond".
7" vinyl
12" vinyl
Chart performance
| Chart (1979/1980) |
Peak
position |
| UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
|
7 |
| Austrian Singles Chart |
19 |
Dutch GfKThe GfK SE, established in 1934 as the GfK-Nürnberg Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e.V. is Germany's largest market research institute, located in Nuremberg, and the fifth largest such organisation in the world, after Nielsen Company, Taylor Nelson Sofres, Forrester Research, and the Kantar Group...
chart |
29 |
| Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the pirate radio channel Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the pirate radio channel was forced to stop. Joost den Draaijer was the initiator of...
|
34 |
| Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data...
|
28 |
| Swiss Singles Chart |
3 |
| US Billboard Club Play Singles Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
|
76 |