The Beat / The English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It (35th anniversary)

This week (May 16th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of I Just Can't Stop It, the debut album from the Beat (known here in the US as the English Beat). It spent fourteen weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 142.

For more on this 1980 release, click here.

For more albums by the group, click here.

The Beat / The English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It

In the late 1970’s, a music genre known as “2 Tone” was created in the UK; it fused elements of punk rock, Ska, reggae, rock steady and new wave. And one of the bands that exemplified that sound was the Beat (known in the US as the English Beat). The band included Dave Wakeling (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Ranking Roger (vocals), Andy Cox (lead guitar), David Steele (base guitar), Everett Morton (drums) and Saxa (saxophone).

The Beat’s 1980 debut album I Just Can’t Stop It reached number 3 in their native UK; in the US the album went to number 142 on the Billboard Album chart (with a fourteen week total run). The record was very popular among the alternative movements on college campuses, and it was also critically well received.