The Prince

Outside of their rapidly growing following, the first thing most of us heard about Madness was their single “The Prince,” which was the second release on Jerry Dammers’ label, Two Tone. Having hooked up with The Special AKA in the summer of 1979 and realised that they had a lot in common with the post-punk youth of Coventry, Madness struck while the iron was hot. Two of the three songs they’d recorded with Clive Langer as demos for publisher Rob Dicken were certainly good enough to release, holding back “My Girl,” for which they had high hopes (and Mark rightly describes as “not Two Tone in any way, shape or form”). A tribute song to Prince Buster, coupled with a cover of the tune of his that they’d named themselves after, was enough to put Madness in a black and white chequered box, and they grabbed the chance.

The song was initially recorded on 16 June 1979 at Pathway Studios, Highbury. The track was then remixed on 9 July of the same year, along with the single’s B-side, “Madness“. The remix was in order to remove the hum from Lee Thompson‘s saxophone solo. However, Mike Barson showed displeasure at the mix of “Madness”.

The song was re-recorded later that year for the One Step Beyond… album. As well as having a distinctively clearer sound, the song’s lyrics were slightly altered, and Mike Barson later admitted in the 33⅓ book One Step Beyond… that he preferred it to the single version. The B-side, “Madness”, was also re-recorded for the album in a more multi-layered arrangement.