B-side Precious Format 7" vinyl Genre New wave, ska punk | Released 29 January 1982 Recorded 1981 Length 2:52 | |
"Town Called Malice" is a song recorded by British band The Jam from the album The Gift. It debuted at number one in the UK Singles Chart in February 1982.
Contents
Overview
The title is a play on the 1950 Nevil Shute novel A Town Like Alice, although Paul Weller says he had not read the book at the time. 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".
Paul Weller has said that it was written about his hometown Woking as a result of his teenage experiences there.
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, 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 chart.
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 No. 31 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1982.
The song was ranked among the top ten "Tracks of the Year" for 1982 by NME.
In popular culture
"Town Called Malice" was featured prominently in the 1985 comedy film National Lampoon's European Vacation, provided the soundtrack for a key scene in the 2000 drama Billy Elliot, and was the opening track to the 2005 film The Matador. 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 was played as the opening song to the TV sitcom Caroline in the City for seasons 2-3. It can also be heard in the first and last episodes of the first season of the BBC series Criminal Justice. In season seven of The Walking Dead TV series, it is featured at the beginning of episode three (The Cell), playing over scenes depicting Negan's Sanctuary.
It is played before every Millwall F.C. home game and is also played before the second half of Woking F.C. games when they play at their home ground Kingfield Stadium.
Notable covers
The song has been variously re-recorded as cover versions by four artists spanning a number of genres: