Dreadlock Holiday
| "Dreadlock Holiday" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by 10cc | ||||
| from the album Bloody Tourists | ||||
| Released | July 1978[1] | |||
| Genre | Reggae[1] | |||
| Length | 4:31 | |||
| Label | Mercury[1] | |||
| Writer(s) |
Eric Stewart Graham Gouldman[1] | |||
| Producer(s) | 10cc[1] | |||
| 10cc singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Some of the experiences that are mentioned are true, and some of them are ... fairly true!
Graham Gouldman, The Songwriters Circle, BBC2, 1999.
"Dreadlock Holiday" is a reggae song by 10cc. It was written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman and was the lead single from the band's 1978 album, Bloody Tourists.[2] Lead vocals were performed by Graham Gouldman.
It became the group's third and final number one hit in the UK Singles Chart, and final top 10 hit, spending a single week at the top in September 1978.[3] The single also topped the charts in New Zealand, reached Number 2 in Ireland and Australia, and peaked at number 44 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Composition
The lyrics relate the experiences of a white man lost in Jamaica. His first encounter with the locals is of being confronted in the street by an unpleasant dreadlocked man who wants the white man's silver chain. The next encounter is when he is beside the pool of his hotel drinking a piña colada; a dark-voiced woman offers him drugs. These experiences were based on real events that happened to Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward and Eric Stewart in Barbados which Stewart changed to Jamaica.
The reference to cricket in the first chorus, reggae in the second, and Jamaica in the third, reflects the victim trying to avoid conflict by convincing the antagonist that they share common interests.
The beach scene in the official video was actually filmed on the less tropical Dorset coast near Charmouth. The Golden Cap, the iconic peninsular of this region known as the "Jurassic Coast" is clearly visible for a few seconds in the video.
Cover versions and usage in media
- The song was later covered by Boney M on their 1985 album Eye Dance — it had been planned as the third single in January 1986 but was cancelled, by Top Deck (in 1987) and by Polish singer Reni Jusis (in 1999).
- Part of a strange dance routine by Bob Fossil in the BBC television show The Mighty Boosh.
- The 2000 Guy Ritchie movie Snatch featured the song.[4]
- In 2002, Intenso Project sampled the track in their hit "Luv Da Sunshine".
- The 2010 David Fincher movie The Social Network featured the song being played by a college band.[5]
- The song has been used as the theme music for cricket programming in the UK on Sky Sports.[6]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 "10cc - Dreadlock Holiday / Nothing Can Move Me (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
- ↑ Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 191. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
- ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 357. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ↑ "Snatch (2000) : Soundtracks". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
- ↑ "The Social Network (2010) : Soundtracks". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-10-13.
- ↑ "New broadcast techniques for England cricket". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
External links
| Preceded by "Three Times a Lady" by The Commodores |
UK number one single 23 September 1978 |
Succeeded by "Summer Nights" by John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John |