BRITISH ARTISTS FIND SUCCESS COVERING JAMAICAN SONGS!

Who Do You Think Of by British girl group MO made a big jump on the UK Pop Singles Chart last week, vaulting from 73 to 47 in its third week.

Released by Polydor, the song samples Lonely Girl, a 2004 hit for singjay Bascom X.

Another song with a Jamaican connection, Is this Love (remix), enters the chart at number 75. It is credited to Bob Marley featuring Lvndscape/Bolier. The Marley original got as far as number nine in 1978.

A number of British acts have charted with songs originally recorded by Jamaicans or sampling songs by Jamaicans.

Dance group Bus Stop sampled singer Carl Douglas’s 1974 chart-topper Kung Fu Fighting on their 1998 cover. Their version peaked at number eight.

Reggae band UB40 covered songs by several Jamaican acts on their Labour of Love albums. The first volume, released in 1983 featured a remake of Jimmy Cliff’sMany Rivers to Cross which reached number 16.

Their take on Eric Donaldson’s Cherry Oh Baby peaked at number 12 in 1984, while their update of 1960s singer Winston Groovy’s Please Don’t Make Me Cry reached number 10 in 1983.

UB40’s remake of Johnny Osbourne’s Come Back Darling went to number 10 that year. Another cover, was Ken Boothe’s The Train Is Coming which went number 30 in 1984.

Sly And Robbie’s Grammy-winning album Friends, released in 1998 by Elektra Records, featured the track Night Nurse, a remake of the Gregory Isaacs hit by Simply Red. It reached number 13.

Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff was a UK chart hit in 1974 courtesy of British rock star Eric Clapton whose version got to number nine.

The Paragons’ late 1960’s hit The Tide is High went number one twice on the UK pop chart. In 1980 rock band Blondie topped the chart with their cover; 22 years later, girl group Atomic Kitten repeated the feat.