Barrington Levy: Here I Come

Track of the Week - 25 September 2016

When I started this whole Track of the Week business back in January last year I suggested that I might occasionally drop in an 'ear-worm' that's got itself stuck in my head. Well, it's 'ear-worm' week!

It's not often that a song I don't know by an artist I'm not familiar with makes such an impression but this one has really stuck. I first heard it on the Craig Charles Funk and Soul show on BBC 6 Music a month or so ago and instantly liked it. When it was rattling round in my head I heard it again at a Caribbean-style restaurant after the Locked in a Room experience last week.

I'm not much of a reggae fan but there's something about the way this moves, nay bounces, along and the language in the song that make it stand out. The scat singing and the slang ('broader than Broadway', 'zeen') are a joy.

From Barrington Levy's 1985 album of the same name Here I Come is a couple of true stories stuck together according to an interview I read somewhere with Mr Levy. As I like you, you deserve to have it stuck in your head too.