Special Beat Service was the third and final album by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 ska

Ska

Ska |Jamaican]] ) 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...

 band The Beat

The Beat (band)

The Beat are a 2 Tone ska revival band founded in England in 1978. Their songs fuse ska, pop, soul, reggae and punk rock, and their lyrics deal with themes of love, unity and sociopolitical topics....

. Like the rest of their material, it was released in the US under the name "The English Beat". It reached #39 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 album chart in 1983 on the strength of two singles, "I Confess" and "Save It for Later," the videos for which received modest airplay on the fledgling MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 video network.

An instrumental version of the song "Rotating Head" had previously been released as the b-side of the single, "Jeanette", under the title, "March of the Swivelheads". It was used in the conclusion of the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...

in 1986.

The aircraft which the band appears to be debarking on the cover is a Vickers VC10

Vickers VC10

The Vickers VC10 is a long-range British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports...

, a British designed four-engined jet

Jet aircraft

A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...

.

Track listing

All songs written by The Beat.

1. "I Confess" – 4:34
2. "Jeanette" – 2:46
3. "Sorry" – 2:33
4. "Sole Salvation" – 3:05
5. "Spar Wid Me" – 4:32
6. "Rotating Head" – 3:24
7. "Save It for Later" – 3:34
8. "She's Going" – 2:10
9. "Pato and Roger a Go Talk" – 3:19
10. "Sugar and Stress" – 2:57
11. "End of the Party" – 3:32
12. "Ackee 1-2-3" – 3:12

Personnel

• Ranking Roger
  Ranking Roger
  Ranking Roger is an English musician. He was a vocalist in the 1980s two-tone band, The Beat and General Public...
  
   – Toasting, vocals, percussion
• Dave Wakeling
  Dave Wakeling
  Dave Wakeling is an English rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is most famous for singing and writing songs for the 1980s 2-Tone band The Beat and also General Public.-Career:...
  
   – Vocals, guitar
• David Steele
  David Steele (musician)
  David "Shuffle" Steele is an English musician who was a member of The Beat and Fine Young Cannibals.-Career:...
  
   – Bass, banjo
• Andy Cox
  Andy Cox
  Andy Cox is a British guitarist, who along with Dave Wakeling, founded The Beat in 1978.The Beat achieved eight Top 40 singles and three hit albums in the UK before announcing their break up in 1983...
  
   – Guitar, mandolin
• Everett Morton
  Everett Morton
  Everett Morton is a drummer and percussionist from Birmingham, England, most notable as the drummer for the early 1980s ska band The Beat. Originally from the West Indies, Morton is known for his distinctive drumming style that includes syncopation and polyrhythm in a rock beat...
  
   – Drums
• Saxa
  Saxa (musician)
  Saxa is a saxophonist famous for having performed with the British ska band The Beat. He has also played with many early reggae stars such as Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster, and Desmond Dekker....
  
   – Saxophone
• Wesley Magoogan – Clarinet, lyricon, saxophone, sax FX unit
• Dave Blockhead – Keyboards, piano
• Bob Sargeant – Telephone, marimba
• Mark Fox – Percussion
• Jack Emblow – Accordion
• M. Mishra – Tabla
  Tabla
  The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
  
  
• Vince Sullivan – Trombone
• Dave Lord – Trumpet
• Steve Sidwell – Trumpet
• Pato Banton
  Pato Banton
  Pato Banton is a reggae singer and toaster from Birmingham, England. He received the nickname 'Pato' from his stepfather, and 'Banton' from the disc jockey slang for a "heavyweight DJ".-Biography:Born in Birmingham, Banton first came to public attention in the early 1980s when he worked with The...
  
   – Toasting

• Martyn Atkins – Art Direction
• Brian Gaylor – Contributor
• Nick Rogers – Contributor
• Mark Dearnley – Engineer
• Trevor Hallesy – Engineer
• Geoff Pesche – Engineer, Remastering
• Mike Hedges
  Mike Hedges
  -Career:Mike Hedges started as a tape-op at Morgan Studios in London in the late 1970s. Having graduated to engineer, he went freelance in 1981 and became an engineer/producer....
  
  – Producer, "Pato and Roger a Go Talk"
• Ranking Roger –Producer, "Pato and Roger a Go Talk"
• Bob Sargeant – Producer
• Marv Bornstein – Mastering
• Bob Carbone – Mastering
• Paul Fox - Drum Tech