Songoftheday 10/16/12 - This generation rules the nation with version...

Musical Youth - "Pass The Dutchie"
from the album The Youth Of Today (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day is by British reggae kids Musical Youth, who were a couple of sets of pre-teen brothers along with lead singer Dennis Seaton. Brought together by one set of brother's father, Freddie Waite, who was in the Jamaican reggae group the Techniques, the group had an out-of-the-box smash with their first single, a co-opted Mighty Diamonds number called "Pass the Kouchie", referring to a marijuana pipe. Here's the original...

Freddie changed the "Koutchie" to "Dutchie", a slang word for a cooking pot in the Caribbean. and substituted "food" for "herb" in the "how does it feel when you got no..." line. Other than that, the boys did a great job recreating the sunny breeziness of the reggae song for their take...

The single rocketed to #1 in England in only its second week of release, and stayed there for three weeks. After American stations picked up the record, they made the top-10 here as well on both the pop (#10) and R&B (#8) charts, also just missing the dance top-10 at #11. They were also nominated for a Grammy for the song and as Best New Artist, losing out to the act that will be featured tomorrow.

After drug issues with the brothers eventually sunk the band, they managed to have five more top-40 hits in Britain, with "Never Gonna Give You Up" (not the Rick Astley song) reaching #6 in 1983. But this would be their last big hurrah in the States, though they managed one more minor hit ("She's Trouble") as well as backing Donna Summer on her awesome "Unconditional Love" single.

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One of iconic rapper Doug E Fresh's first records in 1983 was a track of him rapping over the song...