"Red Red Wine" is a song written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....

. It has been covered by Tony Tribe, Jimmy James & the Vagabonds, and more famously by British reggae group UB40

UB40

UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world's best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.Their hit singles...

, whose version topped the U.S.

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 and UK

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 singles charts. In the song, the singer finds drinking red wine is the only way to forget a lost love.

Versions

Diamond's version reached number sixty-three on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 in 1968. The single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 version of his recording includes a backing choir not found in any other version. It was also remix

Remix

A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

ed for the compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

, Classics: The Early Years

Classics: The Early Years

Classics: The Early Years is a compilation album by Neil Diamond released in 1983 featuring the early recordings he made for Bang Records in 1966 and 1967. After Columbia Records acquired the Bang Records catalogue, the twelve best recordings were reissued on this album. Columbia gave Diamond, a...

. That same year, Jimmy James and The Vagabonds

Jimmy James (Singer)

Jimmy James is a soul music singer, known for songs like Come To Me Softly, Now Is the Time and I'll Go Where the Music Takes Me.-The Vagabonds:...

 released a cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 for the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 market. It charted at number thirty-six.

Tony Tribe, a Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

n rocksteady

Rocksteady

Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor to ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Maytals and The Paragons. The term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton...

 singer, recorded a reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

-influenced version in 1969 which reached number forty-six in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. Also, in 1969, the song was covered by swamp rock/pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 artist Charles Mann

Charles Mann

Charles Mann may refer to:* Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis , British colonial administrator in America* Charles Mann , British born administrator in South Australia* Charles C...

. In 1970, a remake by Vic Dana

Vic Dana

Vic Dana is an American dancer and singer.Discovered by Sammy Davis, Jr., Dana was an excellent dancer , and was encouraged by Davis to move to Los Angeles to further his career. With the decline of dancing as a form of entertainment Dana initiated a singing career. He is best known for his 1965...

 became a minor Billboard Hot 100 hit

Hit record

A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

. In early 1972, country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Roy Drusky

Roy Drusky

Roy Frank Drusky Jr., was an American country music singer popular from the 1960s through the early 1970s. Known for his baritone voice, he was known for incorporating the Nashville sound. His highest-charting single was the No. 1 "Yes Mr. Peters", a duet with Priscilla Mitchell.-Early life and...

 enjoyed a Top 20 hit with his cover version.

UB40 made their rendition for their cover versions album Labour of Love

Labour of Love

Labour of Love is a reggae album by UB40, the band's fourth studio album. It was originally released on 1 September 1983 and included the hits, "Red, Red Wine" , "Cherry Oh Baby" , "Many Rivers to Cross" , and "Please Don't Make Me Cry" .The entire album consists of cover versions of songs...

. According to the band, they were only familiar with Tony Tribe's version, and their version featured a lighter, reggae-style flavor compared to Diamond's somber, acoustic

Acoustic music

Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

. This version reached number one in the UK chart in August 1983, and number thirty-four in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in March 1984. This cover version adds a toasted verse by UB40 member Astro, opening: "Red Red Wine, you make me feel so fine/You keep me rocking all of the time".

The song received a second life in the US in 1988 when DJ Bobby Stark started playing it at a dance club in Atlanta called Scenario. UB40's label, A&M Records, re-released the song as a single, and it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that October.

Diamond later performed a UB40-inspired version of the song on tour. In it, Diamond makes a slight complaint about UB40 misunderstanding the lyrics because of the happy tone to their version. This version was released on Diamond's The Greatest Hits (1966-1992).

The Hobos

The Hobos

The Hobos are a Latvian rock group formed in 1991 by Rolands Ūdris , Mārtiņš Burkēvics , Egons Kronbergs and Vilnis Krieviņš...

 did a cover of this song on their 2004 double album Radio Jah Jah

Radio Jah Jah

Radio Jah Jah is a 2004 studio album by The Hobos. It was the follow-up to their previous studio album Flashback Mornings. Radio Jah Jah is a special release for the band in that it is a double album with one CD featuring original material written by the band’s spiritual leader Rolands Ūdris, and...

. "Red Red Wine" was also performed by Peter Tetteroo, former singer of Tee Set

Tee Set

Tee Set was a pop rock band formed in 1966 in Delft, Netherlands.The group recorded a single in 1969 entitled "Ma Belle Amie", which was a hit in their native country, selling over 100,000 copies...

, a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 band

Band (music)

In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...

, in 1968. The song has also been performed by Cas Haley

Cas Haley

Cas Haley is an American singer/guitarist who was the runner-up on Season 2 of America's Got Talent.-Career:His self-titled album charted as the #8 Best selling reggae album of 2008 on the Billboard Charts....

 along with UB40 on the last episode of the season 2 show America's Got Talent

America's Got Talent

America's Got Talent is an American reality television series on the NBC television network, and part of the global British Got Talent franchise. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of...

.

In 2001, singer Elan Atias

Elan Atias

Elan Atias is an American Jewish, singer/songwriter, reggae singer. Atias performed with The Wailers, which had been the backing band for Bob Marley, on and off from 1997 to 2010. He was signed to London Records under the WMG umbrella in January 2000. He was featured on the Sex and the City...

 released a dancehall

Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

 version on the Buy Out Riddim instrumental, best known performed by Sean Paul

Sean Paul

Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques , who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican pop rap and reggae singer.-1973–1996: Early life:...

, with the song entitled, "Like Glue

Like Glue

"Like Glue" is a song recorded by Jamaican dancehall artist Sean Paul, from his second album Dutty Rock . The song was produced by Tony "CD" Kelly, and written by Kelly and Sean Paul. Lyrics from "Like Glue" were originally the intro to "Gimme the Light" until Sean Paul expanded it and made it into...

". This was the first time the song was performed on a totally different instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

 tracking. The lyrics were also re-written. In 2008, Sizzla

Sizzla

Sizzla Kalonji, or simply Sizzla in are de reggae musician. He is one of the most commercially and critically successful contemporary reggae artists and is well-known for his above-average prolificacy...

 also released a dancehall single ("No Time To Gaze") based on the UB40 version.

UB40 version chart performance

Chart (1984)	Peak position
Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	1
New Zealand Chart	1
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	34

Chart (1988)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	1