"The Return of the Los Palmas 7" | ||||
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Single by Madness | ||||
from the album Absolutely | ||||
B-side | "That's the Way to Do It" "Swan Lake" |
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Released | 16 January 1981 | |||
Format | 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl | |||
Recorded | 1980 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:33 (single version); 2.03 (album version) | |||
Label | Stiff | |||
Songwriter(s) | Music: Mike Barson, Daniel Woodgate and Mark Bedford | |||
Producer(s) |
Clive Langer, Alan Winstanley |
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Madness singles chronology | ||||
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Absolutely track listing | ||||
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Divine Madness track listing | ||||
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"The Return of the Los Palmas 7" is a song by British ska/pop band Madness, written by Mike Barson, Mark Bedford and Daniel Woodgate. The song was Woodgate's first credit as a songwriter, and was released as the band's 7th single on 16 January 1981 . The single reached number 7 in the UK, and remained in the charts for 7 weeks. The single release was slightly different from the track on the album Absolutely, and was roughly 30 seconds longer.
The song is mainly instrumental, except for some ad-libbing by Chas Smash at the beginning, the sound of "Waiter!" approximately 42 seconds into the track, and "Good night!" at the very end. Dave Robinson, head of Stiff Records, was keen on Madness recording another instrumental track, especially after the success of "One Step Beyond...". The resulting song was not as ska influenced as their earlier songs, and was played heavily on BBC Radio 2. This helped Madness gain a new generation of older fans.
The music video for the single was filmed in January 1981, at the Venus Cafe, west London and Kenwood Park, North London.
The video mainly features the band in the cafe, switching between a greasy spoon scene, and an elegant restaurant scene. Around the half-way mark of the video, the band are also shown dressed as cowboys in Kenwood Park. These three scenarios are interspersed between random clips. It is these clips of random events or people which make up the bulk of the video. The video was only filmed two weeks prior to the release of the single, which may explain why so much of the video is random footage, as opposed to footage of the band. Some of these clips are also in the video for the Bob Marley song "One Love" which also happens to include a guest appearance by Suggs and Chas Smash.