Hit Me! The Best Of Ian Dury

Stuart Kirkham
Sep 17, 2020
3 min read

3 CD, GATEFOLD WHITE VINYL LP & DOWNLOAD

ORIGINAL 12” MIX OF REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL PT 3 AVAILABLE TO STREAM HERE:

https://iandury.lnk.to/HitMeBestOfPR

Album Pre-order link: https://iandury.lnk.to/HitMeBestOfPR

Released by BMG on 16 October 2020

Wednesday 2nd September (10 UK BST): In August 1977, a 35-year-old Ian Dury released his first solo record, a 7" vinyl single, whose title Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll became a term of common usage and is still very much part of our vocabulary today. Within the next two years, Dury’s debut album New Boots and Panties!! would spend 89 weeks on the British Album charts. His third single Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, became a U.K. number one in January 1979, selling a staggering 970,000 copies. When Ian Dury lost his life to cancer in 2000 aged 57, he left as one of the great auteurs of the 20th Century, a man who fought enormous disability and adversity to become recognised as a national treasure.

On October 16, BMG releases ‘Hit Me! The Best Of Ian Dury’ a newly assembled compilation put together with the Ian Dury Estate. It’s a compendium of Dury’s biggest hits and then some, a knockout selection of tracks sourced from across Ian’s solo career, Ian Dury & The Blockheads and Kilburn & The High Roads. To kickstart the release, the original extended 12” edit of ‘Reasons To be Cheerful Pt 3’ which was previously unavailable on digital services, is now available to stream here; https://iandury.lnk.to/HitMeBestOfPR

‘Hit Me! The Best Of Ian Dury’ will be released as a 50 track 3 CD set, 20 track white vinyl Gatefold LP and download. Sleevenotes are provided by adopted Blockhead Phill Jupitus.

The compilation opens with ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ and goes on to feature the now classic singles ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’, ‘What A Waste’, ‘Sueperman’s Big Sister’, ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’, ‘Wake Up and Make Love With Me’ and the aforementioned original 12” mix of ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt 3’. Some of Ian’s best and most loved album cuts/B sides are also present – monumental numbers such as ‘There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards’, ‘Inbetweenies’, ‘Billericay Dickie’, ‘Billy Bentley (Promenades Himself In London)’, ‘Blockheads’, ‘Upminster Kid’ and ‘Clevor Trever’. All of course delivered with the quite brilliant musicianship that was provided by amongst others, Norman Watt-Roy, Wilko Johnson, Mickey Gallagher, John Turnbull, Davey Payne, Rod Melvin and Chaz Jankel.

To sum up the power of Ian’s music, Phill Jupitus calls it best in the sleevenotes; “As I look over these tracks I’m reminded of certain times in my life. Certain feelings. Wonderful gigs, interminable car journeys, close friends, new friends, family, mad nights out, sad times, the biological father I never knew. Ian and the band’s music has been such a part of our lives that it has that kind of effect. “

Hit Me! The Best Of Ian Dury is the first release to come from BMG as part of a newly signed catalogue deal and marks the start of a number of exciting projects to come.

CD FORMAT

CD ONE!

1. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll*

2. Wake Up and Make Love With Me*

3. Sweet Gene Vincent*

4. Clevor Trever*

5. Billericay Dickie*

6. My Old Man*

7. I’m Partial To Your Abracadabra*

8. Plaistow Patricia*

9. Blockheads*

10. Pam’s Moods***