Althea & Donna - Uptown Top Ranking I know this isn't Soul but I just love the TOTP's orchestra's attempt to play it live (very rare on live tv & this probably recorded the day before the show went out). Most of the BBC musicians around the UK lost their jobs in the late 70's. The young Jamaican singers Althea Forrest (17), and Donna Reid (18), caused a surprise with their one-off reggae hit single, "Uptown Top Ranking".
It was produced by Joe Gibbs using a re-recording of the riddim of the 1967 Alton Ellis' song "I'm Still In Love", which had already been re-popularised in the 1970s by Marcia Aitken's cover "I'm Still In Love With You Boy" and the deejay track "Three Piece Suit" by Trinity. The single's UK release was on the Lightning record label.
"Uptown Top Ranking" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in February 1978, after early championing by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, but had only one week at the chart summit. Oddly the surprise was compounded by the act often being billed as 'Althia & Donna', and the song sometimes entitled slightly differently, as "Up Town Top Ranking". The lyrics were written by the duo and Errol Thompson. Althea & Donna thus became the youngest female duo to reach the pinnacle of the UK chart.
They released the album of the same name in 1978, but never met with any more tangible success thereafter - Wikipedia
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