Released July 1978 Length 4:31 Producer(s) 10cc | Genre Reggae Label Mercury | |
Writer(s) Eric Stewart
Graham Gouldman | ||
"Dreadlock Holiday" is a reggae song by 10cc. It was written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman and was the lead single from the band's 1978 album, Bloody Tourists. Lead vocals were performed by Graham Gouldman.
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It became the group's third and final number one hit in the UK Singles Chart, and final top 10 hit, spending a single week at the top in September 1978. The single also topped the charts in New Zealand, reached Number 2 in Ireland and Australia, and peaked at number 44 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Composition
The lyrics relate the experiences of a white man lost in Jamaica. His first encounter with the locals is of being confronted in the street by an unpleasant dreadlocked man who wants the white man's silver chain. The next encounter is when he is beside the pool of his hotel drinking a piña colada; a dark-voiced woman offers him cannabis. These experiences were based on real events that happened to Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward and Eric Stewart in Barbados which Stewart changed to Jamaica.
The reference to cricket in the first chorus, reggae in the second, and Jamaica in the third, reflects the victim trying to avoid conflict by convincing the antagonist that they share common interests.
The beach scene in the official video was actually filmed on the less tropical Dorset coast near Charmouth. The Golden Cap, the iconic peninsular of this region known as the "Jurassic Coast" is clearly visible for a few seconds in the video.