80s Jams #53: Musical Youth "Pass The Dutchie" (1982)

Musical Youth crashed into the British scene with all the presumption, exuberance, and flash of...well, youth itself, storming to the top of the U.K. chart in the fall of 1982 with "Pass the Dutchie," their irrepressible cover of the Mighty Diamonds' Jamaican smash "Pass the Kutchie." At the time, the Youth were a revelation and a revolution, for in a day when DJs toasted and singers sung, but not together, they invented an entirely new style. Although the Two-Tone bands had experimented with this kind of mix, the Youth took it a step further with the addition of harmonies, and in that respect were the true precursors of all that was to come in the modern dancehall. Schoolboys they may have been, but Musical Youth were the wave of the future. As the roots scene faded in Jamaica, they sign-posted a way forward with their seminal blend of pop-reggae, that a host of veteran vocal groups would subsequently ride into the mass market. -- Allmusic http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0ifuxqwgldfe