Dub Be Good to Me

"Dub Be Good to Me"
Single by Beats International
from the album Let Them Eat Bingo
Released	February 1990
Format	12", 7, CD
Recorded	1989
Genre	Dub Music
Label	Go Beat
Writer(s)	Norman Cook, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
Producer	Norman Cook
Beats International singles chronology
- "Dub Be Good to Me" (1990) "Won't Talk About It" (1990)

"Dub Be Good to Me" is a popular single by the club music group Beats International, released in 1990. It is generally considered the band's signature song.

Song information

Written by Norman Cook aka. Fatboy Slim, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, "Dub Be Good to Me" was the sole number one single for Cook's genre-hopping outfit Beats International.

The track started out as an instrumental with the title "The Invasion of the Estate Agents". While also included as the B side to this single, it originally appeared as the B side to Norman Cook's 1989 single "For Spacious Lies". This instrumental track is heavily based on the bassline from The Clash's "Guns of Brixton" with a sample of the distinctive "harmonica" theme from the epic western film Once Upon a Time in the West, written by Ennio Morricone. This instrumental, in slightly remixed form, had vocals added from The SOS Band's "Just Be Good to Me" (as re-recorded by Lindy Layton) to form "Dub Be Good To Me". The track also features the distinctive vocals of David John-Baptiste, more commonly known as DJ Deejay or just DJ. The opening and closing line "tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty you're listening to the boy from the big bad city, this is jam hot, this is jam hot" was from Johnny Dynell's 1983 hit "Jam Hot" and became an instant classic and was repeated often, being used as the most common reference to the song. The song was a massive hit spending 4 weeks at number one on the UK singles chart in February 1990. It was the 7th best-selling single of 1990 in the UK. In the U.S., the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and #76 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cover versions

"Dub Be Good to Me" was covered in 2002 by Faithless and Dido for the album NME & Warchild Presents 1 Love.

Jack Peñate covered "Dub Be Good to Me" as a b-side to his re-released single "Second, Minute or Hour" in September 2007.

Rapper Professor Green and Lily Allen released their version of a cover Professor Green's debut album in a song titled "Just Be Good To Green".

English band The Ting Tings covered "Dub Be Good To Me" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge

Track listings

7" single

1. "Dub Be Good to Me"
2. "Invasion of the Estate Agents"

12" single

1. "Dub Be Good to Me" (featuring Lindy Layton)
2. "Just Be Good To Me (acapella)"
3. "Invasion of the Freestyle: Discuss" (featuring RPM)
4. "Invasion of the Estate Agents"

Charts

Peak positions

Chart (1990)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	12
Austrian Singles Chart	2
Dutch Top 40	2
French SNEP Singles Chart	19
German Singles Chart	4
Irish Singles Chart	4
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	6
Norwegian VG-lista Singles Chart	10
Swedish Singles Chart	10
Swiss Singles Chart	6
UK Singles Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	76
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales	15
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	74

End of year charts

End of year chart (1990)	Position
Austrian Singles Chart	30
Dutch Top 40	19
UK Singles Chart	7

Chart successions

Preceded by "Tears on My Pillow" by Kylie Minogue	UK Singles Chart number-one single March 3, 1990 - March 24, 1990	Succeeded by "The Power" by Snap!
Preceded by "The Power" by Snap!	Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single June 9, 1990	Succeeded by "Pump That Body" by Mr. Lee

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)