The Comedy of Errors: Chaka Demus - Special Request (12 June 1992)

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A year after this edition of the John Peel Show was broadcast, I got very interested in the UK Top 40 Singles Chart.  This was because at the tail-end of 1992, I’d bought a copy of The Guinness Book of Top 40 Charts 1952-1991, one of the great reference books I ever owned until I threw it out in a house move 12 years ago.  Well, it wasn’t like I was going to start a blog where it might have been useful to refer to, back then, was it?  For several weeks across March-May 1993, I listened to Bruno Brookes taking us through the chart and dutifully wrote down the climbers, the fallers, the non-movers and new entries.  Like the Guinness Book of Top 40 Charts, I drew a box around the highest number that any single had reached when it became apparent that it was now on a downward curve.  It was only a brief obssession, perhaps 6 Sundays’ worth, but it did allow me to record the second most remembered set of chart placings of the 1990s, after the outcome of the Country House/Roll With It face-off.  I refer to the Top 3 singles at week ending 21 March 1993 with pop/reggae crossover hits by Shaggy, Snow and Shabba Ranks dominating the top of the chart.  Whether it was a quirk of timing or a genuine moment of cultural change, I couldn’t tell, but it opened the floodgates to a spell where chart reggae gave chart dance a real run for its money.  After the initial burst of chart successes, the second wave of artists - many of whom had been toiling away on smaller labels or in clubs for years - starting having hits.  Names like CJ Lewis, Pato Banton and Ini Kamoze hit the mainstream jackpot, all a long way from the days when their main UK radio exposure was through John Peel or The Man Ezeke.
Looking back on it now, the relationship those records had to reggae/dancehall was tenuous to say the least.  They were party records, perfect for summer evenings and given the fact that a number of them had their biggest hits with reworkings of 60s tunes like Sweets For My Sweet or Baby, Come Back they had understandable cross-audience appeal for all ages.  One can only have sympathy for genuine natty dreads who had to endure tourists shouting “Shabba!” as they went about their business.
I think that the best of these records was Tease Me by Chaka Demus and Pliers, which was slinky, sexy and perfectly pitched in terms of the performances and production.  It carried off that trick of sounding like an obvious hit without the workings that made it so, being exposed.  By early 1994, the duo had thrown the kitchen sink at Twist and Shout and were rewarded with a Number 1 single.

For Chaka Demus this was the commercial pay-off for nearly 10 years worth of graft.  The idea of Number 1 singles seemed very remote when Peel played Special Request on this show.  The Top Rank label, who issued the single couldn’t even spell his name correctly.  Unlike the hits with Pliers, you can forget singing along all the way through as Demus starts toasting.  The track appears to be
in praise of women advocating friendship, respect and love for them, but there’s moments where things get earthier.  I hear the phrase, “rear end” and references to how this proves love between a man and a woman, a potential anal sex subtext which gives the phrase, Special Request added potency.  If I’m looking for things that aren’t there, I’m simply happy to sit back and enjoy a performance and production ringing with positive vibes and endorsing male/female romance.  A nice change from the prevailing reggae mood of desperate living, vendettas and self-aggrandisement .

Video courtesy of devagne