“Uptown Top Ranking” by Althea & Donna
Perhaps the easiest way to describe the main narrative behind “Uptown Top Ranking” is as it revolving around the female vocalists mocking men, in a manner of speaking. By the looks of things, Althea and Donna are country girls. So under normal circumstances – such as when they’re “jamming” with the “the ranking dread” and them – there may not be anything particularly conspicuous about the pair.
Or as presented, they “nah pop no style”, as in not being the showy types. So this has led to some, shall we say more mainstream-minded people wrongfully concluding that the vocalists can’t turn it on even if they wanted to.
But Althea and Donna are asserting to the contrary. Instead when they proceed to dress womanly, in “heels” and ‘pants and things’, they are in fact, may we say harassed by men on the roadside. And beyond that the third verse in particular is a bit braggadocious, with the vocalists putting forth that sometimes they like to really chill, i.e. riding around in a Benz or what have you.
So the premise of the message being relayed is something like sleep on them if you want to. Some people may hastily deduce that these women are akin to country bumpkins. But when Donna and Althea do hit up the strip, they’re “uptown top ranking”, i.e. running sh*t, for lack of a better analogy.
But that said, what is also being emitted is living that city life is not really in Althea and Donna’s heart. For instance, they apparently prefer wearing loose-fitting ‘khaki suits’ as opposed to heels and hot pants. And their goal is to ‘bring love’, not, say, to make a bunch of money.
Conclusion
Conclusively, this can be deemed a female-centric party song, i.e. speaking to the fact that, most simply put, young ladies can be sexy when they want to. So maybe, when you see a woman who isn’t sexy per se, it’s not because she can’t be but rather is due to the fact that she has different ambitions. For instance, she might be like these two vocalists, who more generally prefer the Rasta side of life than showing their stuff out in the town.
When was “Uptown Top Ranking” released?
Althea Forrest and Donna Reid, aka Althea & Donna, are a reggae duo that remained extant from the late 1970s up until 2001. But “Uptown Top Ranking”, which also appears as if it may have been their first single, stands as the pair’s only hit. And to note when this track came out in 1977, both Althea and Donna, respectively being 17 and 18, were teenagers.
This track was originally put out by a label called Lightning Records, though Virgin Records (via. their subsidiary Front Line, which focused on reggae artists) also proceeded to back “Uptown Top Ranking” after it proved to be a hit.
Credits
Donna and Althea are credited with writing this song alongside Errol Thompson (1948-2004). The producer of the track was one Joe Gibbs (1942-2008), who appears to have been the more-musically prominent out of the lot.
More Facts about “Uptown Top Ranking”
It has been reported that “Uptown Top Ranking” is meant to be sort of a female-response song to “Three Piece Suit” (1977) by Trinity (aka Junior Brammer, 1954-2021).
The riddim (i.e. instrumental) behind this track was derived from another reggae song that came out in 1977, that being Marcia Aitken’s “I’m Still in Love”. It should be stated that “I’m Still in Love” itself is a cover of Alton Ellis’s “I’m Still in Love With You” (1977).
“Uptown Top Ranking” ultimately went on to serve as the title track to Althea & Donna’s first (and only) album.
This song came out during an era before reggae music really caught on in the US. However, Britons, who in a way have a closer relationship with Jamaica than the United States, had already been up on Caribbean music for some time. Accordingly, even though this track apparently didn’t make any noise stateside (despite hitting in Jamaica itself), it did go on top the UK Singles Chart. Furthermore, it peaked at number two in Ireland. Additionally, this song has been certified silver across the pond as of 2020.
There is an interesting backstory behind this song actually hitting in the UK, as such transpired as the result of John Peel (1939-2004), who at the time was an established DJ working for BBC Radio 1, spinning the track accidentally. Or put differently, “Uptown Top Ranking” was never intended to get any airplay in the United Kingdom to begin with. But said accident caused to the tune, as we would say these days, go viral, and as stated above, it went as far as to become a number one hit in the UK.
I love the song !! Great info, thanks a lot !!