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Town Called Malice

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This article is about the song. For the actual town called Malice, see Malice, Lublin Voivodeship.
"Town Called Malice"
Song
B-side"Precious"

"Town Called Malice" is a song recorded by The Jam from the album The Gift. It reached number one in the UK singles chart.[2]

Song profile

It was a double A-side single release featuring "Precious" as the flip side. A 12" version was also available with a live version of "Town Called Malice" backed by an extended version of "Precious".

Released as the first single from the album on 29 January 1982, it entered the chart at number one on the British music charts, staying at the top for three weeks,[3], and preventing "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers from reaching number one. EMI, the Stranglers record company, objected to the sales of both formats of "Town Called Malice" being aggregated, arguing that Jam fans were buying both versions and thus preventing their band from reaching the top of the charts.

It was the band's third number-one single in the UK. It was the band's sole chart entry onto any American chart (although this single and "Start!" both appeared in the low-rungs of the Billboard Dance/Club Play charts) when it hit #31 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1982[4]

Paul Weller has said that it was written about his hometown Woking as a result of his teenage experiences there.[5][6][7]

A music video of the song was filmed and was in moderate rotation on MTV in 1982 and 1983. The song was featured prominently in the 1985 comedy film National Lampoon's European Vacation, 2005 film The Matador and also appeared in the film Billy Elliot.[8] The song was also featured several times in the play How to Be a Man in West Belfast, which premiered at Wesleyan University in April 2009. It is also on the soundtrack to FIFA Football 2004, as well as being featured in the video game Rock Band. The song featured at the beginning of episode 3.5 of the show Ashes to Ashes. It can also be heard in the first and last episodes of the first season of the BBC series Criminal Justice.

In September 2007, McFly recorded a cover version of the song as part of Radio 1 Established 1967, and a cover by Kids In Glass Houses was included on the CD release of their 2008 single "Saturday".

Notes

  1. ^ Producers for Town Called Malice [1]
  2. ^ Town Called Malice/Precious reached no. 1 in UK [2]
  3. ^ Three weeks at number one in UK [3]
  4. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p4585/charts-awards/billboard-singles
  5. ^ Woking Online ref to Paul Weller
  6. ^ Sunday Times interview with Weller
  7. ^ Web ref to published quote
  8. ^ Film: Billy Elliott features "Town Called Malice" [4]
Preceded by UK number-one single
13 February 1982 - 27 February 1982 		Succeeded by
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