Who recorded it first
Kingston Town
Not a UB40 original — a 1970 Lord Creator single on Clandisc
UB40’s 1990 ballad is so completely theirs in the popular ear that most listeners assume they wrote and first cut it. They did neither. “Kingston Town” was written by Kentrick Patrick — who performed as Lord Creator — and first recorded by him in 1963, as a ska side titled “Babylon.” He re-cut it as reggae for producer Clancy Eccles in 1969, and that version was issued in 1970, under the title it is known by, as a single on Eccles’ Clandisc label with The Fabulous Flames’ “Holly Holy” on the flip. Creator had already largely dropped out of the music business by the 1970s; UB40’s cover, cut in 1989, revived his career and finally paid him.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Recorded in 1969 for producer Clancy Eccles and issued in 1970 as a 7-inch single on Eccles’ Clandisc label, coupled with “Holly Holy” by The Fabulous Flames.
Charted No chart position on record. It was a Jamaican-market single and never appeared on the UK or US charts; the chart life of the song belongs entirely to UB40’s cover.
How we know
The song’s Wikipedia entry ↗ records it as a 1970 Lord Creator single on the Clandisc label, produced by Clancy Eccles and written by Kentrick Patrick, with UB40’s cover recorded in 1989 and released on 19 March 1990.
MusicBrainz ↗ ties the recording to a 1970 Jamaican release titled “Kingston Town / Holly Holy,” credited to Lord Creator and The Fabulous Flames — though Wikipedia’s infobox renders the B-side “Holly Holly.”
The Jamaica Gleaner ↗ traces the composition back further still, to a 1963 ska recording Creator made for Vincent “Randy” Chin under the title “Babylon.”
Dancehallmag’s 2023 obituary ↗ dates the Eccles recording to 1970, and describes the European royalties the UB40 cover generated and the ownership dispute that followed — Eccles claiming fifty per cent on the strength of some of the words, Creator maintaining he wrote the whole thing.
Kingston Town (song) on WikipediaKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
Right song, wrong originator
The belief is chronological, not malicious — UB40 credited the writer all along. Here is what the record actually shows.
UB40
Their 1990 recording is the version almost everyone has heard, and it is treated as the song’s starting point.
Lord Creator, 1970
Recorded in 1969 with producer Clancy Eccles and issued in 1970 as a single on Eccles’ Clandisc label, backed with The Fabulous Flames’ “Holly Holy.”
Kentrick Patrick
Kentrick Patrick is Lord Creator’s legal name — the writer and the first performer are the same man.
Lord Creator, 1963
Creator first cut the composition as a ska side for Vincent “Randy” Chin in 1963 under the title “Babylon”; the 1970 Eccles session reworked it around Kingston and gave it the title it is known by.
Paris Hilton, 2007
Press reports of a claim over “Stars Are Blind” named UB40 as the party suing; the band later said that was incorrect.
Written by Kentrick Patrick and first recorded by him, as Lord Creator, in 1963 under the title “Babylon”; re-cut for Clancy Eccles and released in 1970 on Clandisc as “Kingston Town.” UB40’s version came out on 19 March 1990.
Context
Why the cover swallowed the original
A record can be famous in Jamaica and invisible everywhere else, and in 1970 that gap was almost total. Lord Creator’s “Kingston Town” was a Jamaican single on a Jamaican producer’s label with a Jamaican pressing run; no British or American chart ever registered it. UB40’s version arrived twenty years later through a major-label pipeline, in a decade when a polished reggae ballad could go to No. 1 across Europe.
The other reason is that Labour of Love II was designed to do exactly this. UB40 built the series to re-cut reggae records they loved, and the arrangements are lush enough to feel authored rather than borrowed. The band were never coy about the source — the credit is on the sleeve — but a No. 4 hit heard by millions overwrites a single heard by thousands.
The chronology, step by step
- 1963 — Lord Creator records the composition for producer Vincent “Randy” Chin as a ska side under a different title, “Babylon.”
- 1969 — producer Clancy Eccles has him re-record it as a reggae side, reworked to be about Kingston.
- 1970 — issued as a single on Eccles’ Clandisc label, backed with The Fabulous Flames’ “Holly Holy.”
- 1989 — UB40 record their version for Labour of Love II.
- 19 March 1990 — UB40’s single is released on DEP International; it reaches No. 4 in the UK and No. 1 in France and the Netherlands.
- 1990s — with the European royalties flowing, Clancy Eccles claims fifty per cent of the song on the strength of having written some of the words; Creator maintains he wrote the whole thing, and says the publishers agreed after investigating.
- 2007 — the composition’s copyright holders pursue a claim over Paris Hilton’s “Stars Are Blind”; press reports name UB40 as the suing party, which the band later says was incorrect.
- 2022 — Jamaica awards Lord Creator the Order of Distinction (Officer). He dies on 30 June 2023.
The credit was always on the sleeve. Nobody read the sleeve.