Who recorded it first
Red Red Wine
Not a UB40 original — a 1967 Neil Diamond single
This is a near-total cover-eclipse: almost everyone hears ‘Red Red Wine’ as a UB40 song, but UB40’s 1983 reggae version is a cover. The song was written and first recorded by Neil Diamond in 1967 for Bang Records. UB40 found it not through Diamond but through Tony Tribe’s 1969 reggae cover — and famously didn’t realise Diamond had written it at all.
The record
Who recorded it first
How we traced it
The song was written and first recorded by Neil Diamond in 1967 for Bang Records, appearing on his album Just for You; it reached No. 62 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Wikipedia ↗.
In 1969 the Jamaican singer Tony Tribe recorded a reggae version for Trojan Records, which reached No. 46 in the UK. It was this version, not Diamond’s, that UB40 knew and set out to cover.
UB40’s 1983 reggae cover, from Labour of Love, went to No. 1 in the UK and — on a 1988 US re-release — No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, so thoroughly overtaking the original that Diamond’s authorship dropped out of public memory SecondHandSongs ↗.
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Fact-check
The attribution problem
This is a clean cover-eclipse with a twist: nothing about UB40’s record is wrong, and the band themselves were the first to misattribute it. The error is believing they — or reggae — originated a song a Brill Building songwriter wrote in 1967.
‘It’s a UB40 song’
UB40’s 1983 version is a cover. The song was written and recorded sixteen years earlier, in 1967, by Neil Diamond the history ↗.
Neil Diamond, 1967
Diamond’s version reached only No. 62, and the reggae arrangement UB40 gave it was so distinct that the pop original faded from memory entirely.
Tony Tribe, 1969
UB40 covered Tony Tribe’s reggae version, not Diamond’s — and admitted they didn’t realise Diamond had written it, reading the ‘N Diamond’ credit as a Jamaican artist called Negus Diamond.
Written and first recorded by Neil Diamond in 1967, routed through Tony Tribe’s 1969 reggae cover, and made famous — but not originated — by UB40 in 1983 the record ↗.
Context
Why the cover ate the original
A cover eclipses its original most completely when it transforms the song. Neil Diamond’s 1967 ‘Red Red Wine’ is a wistful pop ballad; UB40 rebuilt it as skanking reggae, and the new arrangement was so much more famous than the old one that it became the song, with the pop original nowhere in the public’s ear.
The strangest part is that the band who erased the original never knew it existed. UB40 covered a cover — Tony Tribe’s 1969 reggae version — and mistook the writer’s credit for a reggae artist’s name. The misattribution ran through the very people who made the song famous.
The three stages, in order
- Neil Diamond writes and records it, 1967 (Bang Records); US No. 62.
- Tony Tribe cuts a reggae version, 1969 (Trojan); UK No. 46.
- UB40 cover Tony Tribe’s version, 1983 (Labour of Love) → UK No. 1.
- A 1988 US re-release takes UB40’s version to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- Diamond’s 1967 original all but disappears from public memory.
UB40 covered a cover, and mistook the writer’s credit for a reggae artist’s name.