---
product_id: 60273023
title: "Specials"
brand: "the specials"
price: "€ 592.48"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 12
url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/60273023-specials
store_origin: SK
region: Slovakia
---

# Specials

**Brand:** the specials
**Price:** € 592.48
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Specials by the specials
- **How much does it cost?** € 592.48 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sk](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/60273023-specials)

## Best For

- the specials enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted the specials brand quality
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## Description

The Specials - Specials (180 Gram Vinyl) The Specials was ranked among the top ten "Albums of the Year" for 1979 by NME. In June 2000 Q placed The Specials at number 38 in it's list of the 100 greatest British albums ever. Pitchfork Media featured The Specials at number 42 in their list of the "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". Rolling Stone listed the album at number 68 in their list "100 Best Albums of the Eighties", as the album was not released in the US until 1980.

## Images

![Specials - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61-C2mCwWTL.jpg)
![Specials - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/916vTHHDNGL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Still the Heavyweight Champions of the Ska Revival
  

*by G***. on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 25, 2005*

The Specials are still the heavyweight champions of both waves of  ska revivals (in the UK and later in the USA). I saw the Specials just before this album was  released in 1979 at a Rock Against Racism concert in London's Hyde Park. I was warned by my two British hosts that the Specials would "blow my mind."... but nothing could have prepared me for the inspired anarchy of this young racially mixed Brits playing music that sounded like reggae on steroids.  The two manic singers Terry Hall and Neville Staples bounced around the stage and banged their heads together in time to the music. The entire band had buzz cut hairdos and dressed like thrift shop refugees complete with Sinatra type fedoras, skinny ties and ill fitting suits. By the end of the show the entire stage was filled with frantically pogoing audience members and the Specials played on, as if the audience and the band were the same thing. Everything I learned about ska music started with that Specials concert in 1979.The reason why the Specials were so...errr...special was that they were first rate musicians who not dilletantes when it came to knowledge of the early Jamaican ska and rocksteady music. Jerry Dammers was raised on the music of Prince Buster, the Skatalites,  Desmond Dekker, Byron Lee and the stable of ska musicians that were part of Duke Reid's venerable British label, Trojan Records. In the UK, Trojan Records had a steady stream of bestselling ska records in the UK in the mid-Sixties. Even the godfather of punk, John Lydon, who was notorious for ridiculing any kind of popular music once professed that reggae and ska were the only music he cared about. Meanwhile,  in the USA, our only knowledge of ska was 1965's infectious hit by Millie Small, "My Boy Lollipop." In the Sixties, there was little room on American  radio playlists for obscure Jamaican musicians playing gimmicky West Indian pop. If anyone raised the profile of ska music in America, it was the Specials.The songs of this album represent a fusion the anarchy of punk with the frenetic riddims of ska. It is a snapshot of a near-perfect moment in music. Elvis Costello's "ragged but right" production style resembled that of his own producer, Nick Lowe who earned the nickname "Basher" for his rough-hewn sound. "Doesn't Make It Alright" is the Special's anti-racism anthem that was a response to the National Front's campaign to bash forgien nationals from the West Indies and Pakistan who were new immigrants to London during that period. Terry Hall as the prosecuter and Neville Staples as "Judge Dread" engage in a hilarious satire of a kangaroo court in the song "Stupid Marriage." The ribald humor of "Stupid Marriage" was actually a Jamican ska reworking of Shorty Long's late Sixties R&B hit "Here Comes the Judge." "Blank Expression" was a cry against apathy and ignorance. The covers of ska classics like "A Message To Rudy" and Prince Buster's classic "Too Hot"  showcase the muscular playing of the band. The cover of the Maytal's classic "Monkey Man" fires a hilarious shot from the hip at the Thatcher enthusiasts in the pompous chambers of the House of Lords, comparing the Britian's nobility to inbred baboons. The addition of trombonist Rico Rodriquez, who was a transplanted Jamaican with an involvment in the ska's early Sixties roots lent the Specials an authenticity that few of their peers could claim. Drummer John Bradbury and bassist Horace Gentleman punched up the ska sound with a heavy drum n' bass sound that appealed to the younger generation accustomed to the hard charging punk rock sound.By the mid-Eighties the ska music revival had ebbed all too early in the UK. I always felt that the 2 Tone Records bands like the  dubwise Beat (aka the English Beat), the hyper-manic Madness and the ultra-cool stylists, the Selector were among the best things about the post-punk movement. There was a second wave revival of ska music in the United States in the Nineties, but none of the stateside ska bands posessed the talent, imagination or authenticity of their UK counterparts. The Specials were the flagship of the ska revival and their magnificent but short lived career brought the joy of ska music to a lot of people who otherwise would have never heard it. I don't deejay much these days, but in the early Eighties no party or dance was complete until the floor was filled with estatic dancers slamming to the riddims of "Concrete Jungle."  Those were the days, my friend.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    THIS are Two Tone!
  

*by J***Z on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 7, 2002*

Look through reviews for ska albums on Amazon and you'll see the phrase "Greatest ska album ever," a lot.  Well, I won't debate what's the greatest ever since that is, to some extent, a matter of taste, but if you dig the Two Tone sound "Specials" is an album that you must have! This is the album that turned a lot of people on to ska in the early eighties.  Is it the greatest ska album?  Let's put it this way: it's a seminal album.  This is the record that turned Punks into Rude Boys!  If you could only buy one "second wave" ska album this is the one I would recommend, even over compilations that cover more artists and sounds.  This are Two Tone! If you love ska you GOT to have this!This remastered reissue of the UK version is a real gem.  I remember being envious of the few who could find the import version on vinyl (yeah, way back then before we had these new-fangled CD things).  Now we can all get it on CD.  Remastered, it sounds great, better than ever!  Sure, it's missing "Gangsters," but you can find that on any number of compilations (I really think, though, they could have included "Gangsters" as a bonus track easily enough.  They DO give you the video, but you can only watch it and listen to it on the computer).And do yourself a favor: after you have danced yourself to exhaustion the first few times you listen to "Specials" (you will, trust me), be sure to pop the disk in at a quiet moment when you can just sit and listen without distractions.  This is a very musical, very well done and polished piece of art.  The lyrics are thoughtful, and often hysterical, and the band is just so, so tight. All the layers come together perfectly.So, have you clicked the "buy" button yet?  What?  Well what are you waiting for?  BUY IT!!!!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Watch for differences in original US vinyl version
  

*by R***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2021*

Review for 2015 reissue CD sold here. I give only 4 stars for the product and not the material. Enjoy it just as much as i did when i had the original US vinyl version. Gangsters omitted on this cd with extended 6:00 version of  "too much too young" added. Although digipaks are very good for the environment, this copy has no booklet and looks stripped down and dull. Dammers half negative photo not included at all in packaging. Music is still relevant with a great message and fun vibe.

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*Product available on Desertcart Slovakia*
*Store origin: SK*
*Last updated: 2026-03-27*