Songoftheday 03/15/13 - I never thought I'd miss you half as much as I do....

Madness - "It Must Be Love"
from the album Madness (US, 1983) / Complete Madness (UK, 1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5

Today's Song of the Day is by the British ska-pop group Madness, who finally broke through on American shores with a song that in my mind is one of the best over of the whole decade, "Our House". For the choice of a second single, the band went with a cover of English singer/songwriter Labi Siffre's "It Must Be Love", which was a top-20 hit in the UK in 1971...

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Madness took the bittersweet song and brightened the background a bit substituting a piano for the strumming guitar, and with Suggs cocky charm sells it like an original...

"It Must Be Love" reached the top-10 in the UK, Ireland, and Australia, and also became their second and to-date last top-40 pop hit in the States. They would still go on chugging in their homeland, accruing a total of sixteen top-10 singles, including a #1 single with "House Of Fun". They would have one more minor hit in the States, "The Sun And The Rain" in 1984. The band's latest top-10 in Britain so far was in 1999 with "Lovestruck". They were also part of the London Olympics closing ceremony in 2012.

Lately, you may have heard the song hawking Samsung Galaxy phones, but that's not Madness, that's a cover by Newton Faulkner...

In 1992, Madness revisited the song for the German spoof movie Neues von Wixxer and went back into the top-10 in the UK at #6...

That same year, Scottish singer also went the reggae route with "It Must Be Love"...

.and lastly, here's the band at Glastonbury in 2009...

Up tomorrow: British dream-prog rockers are in the driver's seat.