Althea & Donna were the Jamaican reggae singing duo 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 - caused a chart surprise when their reggae song "Uptown Top Ranking" became a UK No. 1 in February 1978. They released the album of the same name in 1978, on which they are backed by The Revolutionaries, on the Virgin Records subsidiary Front Line, and several more singles, but never met with any more tangible success thereafter. In 2001, Caroline Records reissued the album "Uptown Top Ranking".
Links To Peel[]
According to Jon Kutner, the record was played accidentally by Peel in 1977 when he was supposed to play Mighty Two's 'Calico Suit' track, which was on the other side. The record resulted in him being inundated with requests for it to be played [1]. However, newly available audio indicates that John did intend to play the Althea and Donna track on its first play on 11th October of that year. At the end of 1977, Peel ranked 'Uptown Top Ranking' as his number 2 track of his personal favourite songs of 1977 in his own 1977 Festive Fifty.
Years later, a request for the song on BFBS resulted in JP recounting the following story:
"That is one of very few records, very possibly the only one, that I can claim some credit for its having been a hit. I think it got to number one, or number two anyway, something like that. What happened was that I got an early pre-release copy of it on the Joe Gibbs label out of Joe Gibbs' studio, thought it was wonderful and actually bought other copies of the import and took 'em round to other DJs and tried to persuade them to play it, including Kid Jensen actually. They all agreed it was a great record but wouldn't play it because it was like an import and so forth, so it was then picked up by Lightning, a certain amount of activity developed, and then I think it went on to be picked up by Virgin and became a huge hit record, and they made an LP or something but no more singles. When they came to London the first time, they had some kind of a do for them, and I went along, and they said, "Oh, Althea and Donna, this is John Peel," and they completely blanked me out! I thought they'd say something like, "Oh, thanks for playing the record" at the very least, you know, but absolutely nothing. That's showbiz, it's lots of fun." [2]
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- 1977 Festive Fifty: Uptown Top Ranking #02
Shows Played[]
Althea & Donna- Uptown Top Ranking
- 1977
- 11 October 1977: Up Town Top Ranking (7") Joe Gibbs Globe International
- 13 October 1977: 'Uptown Top Ranking (7") Joe Gibbs Globe International
- 20 October 1977: 'Uptown Top Ranking (7") Joe Gibbs Globe International
- 25 October 1977: 'Uptown Top Ranking (7") Joe Gibbs Globe International
- 16 November 1977: 'Uptown Top Ranking (7")' (Lightning)
- 22 December 1977: 'Uptown Top Ranking (7")' (Lightning)
- 27 December 1977: 'Uptown Top Ranking (7")' (Lightning) FF #02
- 1978
- 04 January 1978: Up Town Top Ranking (shared 7" with Mighty Two - Up Town Top Ranking / Calico Suit) Lightning
- 10 August 1978: 'Make A Truce (Version) (12”)' (Ranking)
- 24 August 1978: 'Make A Truce (Riddim Style) (7")' (Ranking)
- 28 August 1978: 'Make A Truce (Version)' (Ranking)
- 1990
- 08 September 1990 (BFBS) (Peel 157 (BFBS)): 'Uptown Top Ranking (7")' (Lightning)
- 2004
- 29 October 2004 (BBC World Service): 'Uptown Top Ranking (7")' (Lightning)
- 18 November 2004 (Rob Da Bank): 'Uptown Top Rankin' (Soul Jazz)
- Althea
- 21 October 1977: Down Town Thing (7") Joe Gibbs Record Globe