Up Town Top Ranking- Althea & Donna  (1978)

Description

Additional information about this, Althea & Donna  vinyl art.

Althea & Donna – The Artist/s

Althea & Donna were a Jamaican reggae vocal duo, consisting of Althea Rose Forrest and Donna Marie Reid. They are best known for their 1977 single “Uptown Top Ranking”, which was a number-one hit in the United Kingdom in 1978. The Jamaican teenage singers Althea Forrest and Donna Reid – then 17 and 18 years old respectively released the album of the same name in 1978, backed by The Revolutionaries, on the Virgin Records subsidiary Front Line, The album was produced by Karl Pitterson. The duo recorded several more singles with little success.

Up Town Top Ranking – The Song

“Up Town Top Ranking “ is a song by Jamaican teenage singers Althea Forrest and Donna Reid, recorded when they were 17 and 18 years old respectively. Released in 1977, the song comprises the girls ad-libbing to deejay track “Three Piece Suit” by Trinity. The lyrics were written by the duo and Errol Thompson. It was produced by Joe Gibbs, using a re-recording of the riddim of the 1967 Alton Ellis song “I’m Still in Love”, which had already been re-popularised in the 1970s by Marcia Aitken’s cover “I’m Still in Love With You Boy”, and “Three Piece Suit” by Trinity, to which “Uptown” was an “answer record”.
The record was initially recorded as a joke. It was accidentally played by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel resulting in numerous requests for additional plays. With early championing by Peel and a performance on Top of the Pops, it soon became a surprise hit, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart in February 1978. The track spent a total of 11 weeks in the chart. Althea & Donna became the youngest female duo to reach the number-one spot on the UK chart.

The Jamaican Female – The Shape

This record had been modelled into a young Jamaican girl with a large afro hair style. The afro is a hair style created by combing out natural growth of afro-textured hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair. The hairstyle can be created by combing the hair away from the scalp, dispersing a distinctive curl pattern, and forming the hair into a rounded shape, much like a cloud or puff ball.
For people with wavy or straight hair, the hair style is created with the help of permanent hair structure-changing creams or gels and/or other solidifying liquids to temporarily hold the hair in place. Particularly popular in the African American community of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the hairstyle is often shaped and maintained with the assistance of a wide-toothed comb colloquially known as an Afro pick.

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