DISCOGRAPHY SONG LYRICS, VIDEOS & FAN REVIEWS
Period
- All
- 1979-1980 (One Step Beyond)
- 1980-1981 (Absolutely)
- 1981-1982 (Madness 7)
- 1982-1983 (The Rise and Fall)
- 1983-1984 (Keep Moving)
- 1984-1988 (Mad Not Mad)
- 1988-1999 (The Madness)
- 1999-2005 (Wonderful)
- 2005-2009 (The Dangermen Sessions)
- 2009-2012 (The Liberty Of Norton Folgate)
- 2012-2016 (Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da)
- 2016-2023 (Can't Touch Us Now)
- 2023... (Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie)

Herbert
Suggs composed Herbert with Mike Barson. Two weeks before "Can't Touch Us Now", the album's release, the song "Herbert" was released as a teaser on 14 October 2016. It was accompanied by an animated lyric video in the style of the album's artwork.

Never Knew Your Name
Mike: 'Never Knew Your Name' was an old song that'd been kicking around for ages. After the band broke up in the 80s, I was working with Suggs on a project together. We did quite a lot of recording over a few years, and then he got talked into ...

Driving In My Car
"Driving in My Car" was written by Mike Barson and recorded by Madness. It was released as a stand-alone single on 24 July 1982 and spent eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number four. It reached number 20 on the Australian ...

If I Didn’t Care

Girl Why Don’t You?
Suggs: 28 years ago? There was a stall in Berwick St. market, in London's Soho, that sold 45s and had a great selection of Blue Beat records - I would buy as many as I could afford and rush home to play them. The ten second crackle of static ...

Small World
Chris: I loved 'Small World'. Because it talked about the "magic line" , this overground train-line that connected us all. When we did the book Before We Was We, we realised all these connections that had linked us, like Woody went to the same ...

In The Middle Of The Night
The band has a collective memory of Suggs getting the idea for the song from a genuine newspaper article about a knicker thief seeing his own description and photo-fit in the papers and making a dash for it.

Crying Shame
The song "Crying Shame" was originally released as the B-side of the 7-inch single "Embarrassment". Despite being overlooked initially, the song is considered one of Barson's best works. "Crying Shame" has a Coasters-inspired sound and stands ...

Turning Blue

Lola
Lee: 20 years after its release, Chris & myself wrote our inspired version, 'Mistress, Mistress' - it sounded fab but, as agent 1 would say, 'this song is available absolutely nowhere!' Lola obviously had an unearthly effect on myself as ...

My Girl 2
Mike: My wife is from the former Yugoslavia, where they use the phrase "Da" for "yes" So the opening to 'My Girl 2', with everyone shouting "Oui oui, si si, ja ja, da da!" is some chap being very enthusiastic about his girlfriend, so ...

Rockin’ in A♭
Dan Barson was the singer of Bazooka Joe, a north London rock and roll band that started in 1970. His brother Mike used to see them play in the mid-1970s. After seeing the Sex Pistols, the band changed and is now better known as Stuart ...

Mummy’s Boy
Mark explains that "Mummy's Boy" was written while he was still at school. "It was a chance remark by one of my teachers who told me he still lived at home with his parents. That set me thinking—in fact, I found it quite shocking.

Misery
Chris: 'Misery' was Cathal again. I said, "Oh, we should get a barbershop quartet on this". And so we got this barbershop quartet to sing on the choruses, and they were really good. They recently got in touch with me, because one of them died, ...

Run For Your Life
The album's tracks have a strong seventies vibe, and this particular song boasts a disco-funk sound. Written by Foreman, it features a confident rhythm, a dynamic threefold bass line, and a dominant horn section with repetitive riffs. The ...

Mistakes
According to John Hasler, the band played a two-chord vamp, and the songwriter wrote the lyrics in the next room. On the other hand, Cathal admires the lyrics of "Mistakes," saying that it is an astute and poignant observation of life at a ...

Death Of A Rude Boy
Mike: 'Death Of A Rude Boy' is a great track. I wasn't so mad on the rude boy thing - we were never anything to do with rude boys, it was The Specials that were always going on about rude boys, and some of them had a Jamaican connection so it ...

Bullingdon Boys
Madness today unveil snap release 'Bullingdon Boys'. The seminal British pop band's first new music since 2016, 'Bullingdon Boys' is a self explanatory, barbed swipe at the charlatans, rotters and chancers at the top of the tree who have done ...

Crying
Chris: I've got so many songs that I've written with Lee that have never seen the light of day, and I didn't want these to get lost. In the end, a lot of mine and Thommo's songs ended up on the 'box set' version of the album. So what happened ...

Black and Blue
Mike: I wrote 'Black and Blue' about breaking up with my missus, Sandra. We'd been married for a very long time. That song was about the breakup, and the relief, in some ways, when you've been stuck in the negative spiral that some ...
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