Madness's 20 best songs, ranked

17 June 2025, 13:02

We rank the hits from the Camden Town band who conquered the world.

Madness have released a load of stunning albums across their career.

They've gone from early classics like One Step Beyond... and Absolutely to more recent successes like The Liberty of Norton Folgate and Theatre of the Absurd Presents C'est la Vie.

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Each of those records is packed with hit songs with a few more standalones sprinkled between those LPs.

With over 40 singles to their name, it's not been easy to hack that number down by more than half and pick their best, but that's just what we've done.

From the Nutty sound of their early days to their more conceptual moments, we've ranked Madness's greatest songs below.

1. C'est La Vie

   

   Madness - C’est La Vie - Official Video (Extended Version)

   While they split in 1986, Madness have been back together since 1992. That's over 30 years, compared to to their original decade-long run.

   They've also been releasing regular studio albums since 1999's Wonderful (more on that later), but the pace isn't quite what it was in their Nutty heyday.

   2023's Theatre of the Absurd Presents C'est la Vie was the band's first in seven years, but it was definitely worth the wait, and actually became the band's first UK number one album.

   It was led by this horn-powered Mike Barson-written title track that found the band in incredible form, refining and updating their two-tone sound with a new maturity without losing any of their swing or sway.

2. Night Boat to Cairo

   

   Madness - Night Boat to Cairo (Official HD Video)

   A frequent set-closer to this day, 'Night Boat to Cairo' first featured on One Step Beyond... in 1979, before popping up on the Work Rest and Play EP a year later.

   Written by Suggs (words) and Barson (music), its brass has an Egyptian feel that fits the lyrics ("Last boat along the river Nile / Doesn't seem to care, no more wind in his hair").

   Its unconventional structure – barely any words and no real chorus to speak of – and ramshackle video helped it become an unlikely fan favourite.

3. Lovestruck

   

   Madness - Lovestruck (Official 4K Video)

   Madness had been back together for about seven years when they finally braved the risk of new material.

   The big comeback album Wonderful got to a very respectable 17 in the charts, and its lead single 'Lovestruck' peaked at number 10.

   It was written by Barson with sax player Lee Thompson, and Suggs' vocal captured that sense of dizzy joy and regret after a night on the tiles ("... I've fallen for a lampost").

4. Embarrassment

   

   Madness - Embarrassment (Official HD Video)

   One of those songs where the bounce of the tune covers up the seriousness of the lyrics for a lot of listeners.

   Written by Lee Thompson (with an assist from Mike Barson) about his sister Tracy, who had become pregnant aged just 17.

   She wasn't married and, although it rightly wouldn't bat an eyelid today, the father of her child-to-be was black.

   The lyrics dealt with that bitter rejection. ("You're not to come and see us no more/ Keep away from our door").

   "It was just not accepted in those days," Lee told BBC News years later.

   "She was shunned by a few people in the family. My father tried to talk her into getting it terminated. My sister dug her heels in and I was caught in the middle, wanting everyone to be happy."

   Thankfully, once the child was born Lee's mum and dad saw sense and doted on both their daughter and grandchild.

5. Michael Caine

   

   Madness - (My Name Is) Michael Caine (Official Video)

   One of the Madness songs sung by Carl Smyth (aka Chas Smash), its lyricist, rather than Suggs. The song also features a spoken-word sample of Michael Caine saying alternately "I am Michael Caine" and "My name is Michael Caine".

   "My daughter, who was 10 at the time, said: 'You've got to do it, dad, it's Madness!'" Caine later told The Guardian. "I did it for her."

   Despite the title, sample, and Caine impression that opens the video, it's not actually about the actor himself.

   Instead the song, which has more of a broad '80s pop vibe than ska sound, was about informants during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

   "The record's about informers," Smyth told Record Mirror at the time.

   "I wouldn't do a song just about Michael Caine – it's not a tribute or anything like that. I was trying to think of who could be used to illustrate it, and his name seemed right – his film The Ipcress File had the sort of atmosphere I wanted to create – we even used some of the phrases."

6. Grey Day

   

   Madness - Grey Day (Official Video)

   Listening to 'Grey Day', you might think that three albums in Madness were looking to expand their sound.

   But while this Mike Barson-written off-beat hit is anything but Nutty, it actually dates from before the band's first flush of success, being performed way back in 1978 when they were still called The North London Invaders.

   It was released just a couple of months before 'Ghost Town' by The Specials, and definitely shares some of that song's dark miserabilist ska DNA.

7. Drip Fed Fred (featuring Ian Dury)

   

   Madness - Drip Fed Fred feat. Ian Dury (Official 4K Video)

   Ian Dury died in March 2000, aged just 57. The last song he recorded featuring his voice wasn't a Blockheads number, but this fantastic single from the Madness comeback album.

   A couple of months after the album came out (and a couple of months before Dury died), 'Drip Fed Fred' – written by Barson and Thompson – got a single release, and was a great final showcase.

   Dury sang the bulk of the verses and was backed by Madness in the chorus in this storming, swirling tale of gang thuggery.

8. Wings of a Dove

   

   Madness - Wings of a Dove (Official HD Video)

   A non-album single for the band, 'Wings of a Dove' was written by Suggs and Chas Smash. The generous Suggs even shared lead vocals with his bandmate.

   Joining them were the voices of the Inspirational Choir of the Pentecostal First Born Church of the Living God, as well as steel drums by Creighton Steel Sounds.

   The special guests helped give the song a very different sound from much of the rest of the Madness back catalogue, and it was a successful one, with the song going all the way to number 2 in the singles charts, with only UB40's 'Red Red Wine' keeping it off the top.

   While it didn't feature on a Madness LP in the UK, it was wedged onto both the US version of Keep Moving and the multi-artist compilation Greenpeace – The Album.

9. (Waiting For) The Ghost Train

   

   Madness - Waiting For The Ghost Train

   Another standalone single, '(Waiting For) The Ghost Train' was the band's last before they split up in 1986.

   Mike Barson had left the band in 1984, but he dropped back in to record this swansong.

   Written by Suggs alone and produced by the Clive Langer/Alan Winstanley dream team who handled all the classic-era Madness albums, it peaked at number 18 on the charts.

   Like so many of Madness's hits, its bouncey rhythms disguised some pretty deep lyrics - this time about apartheid in South Africa.

10. Never Knew Your Name

    

    Madness - Never Knew Your Name (Official Video)

    Madness don't release albums with the same frequency since their return, but when they do put out a full-length release, it's always worth the wait.

    A case in point was 2012's Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da which was a perfect showcase of the slightly more mature Nutty boys sound.

    It showed they had lost none of their melodic sensibilities, despite the temporary absence of bassist and founding member Mark Bedford.

    Among the many soundtracks was the single 'Never Knew Your Name', which gave the band's classic ska sound an unexpectedly slick and effective disco gloss.

11. Driving in My Car

    

    Madness - Driving in My Car (Official 4K Video)

    Sure, some Madness songs are dense screeds about apartheid or the prejudice faced by interracial children and their parents, but 'Driving in My Car' is about... well, driving. In your car.

    Not quite a Jaguar. Bought from a bloke from Brazil (in Primrose Hill). Written by Mike Barson, this comedic classic was released as a standalone single and went all the way to number four in the UK singles chart.

12. NW5

    

    Madness - NW5

    Madness had a successful live return in 1992, before cementing their comeback with 'Lovestruck' and the Wonderful album seven years later.

    They followed that up with solid covers album The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 but the most vital moment in the Madness reunion came in 2009 with the release of the stunning The Liberty of Norton Folgate.

    17 years after their reunion and three decades after their debut, Madness released what might well be their crowning glory. It earned them a Gold album, top five position and was led by this gorgeously layered lead track, written by Thompson and Barson.

13. Madness

    

    Madness - Madness (Official HD Video)

    Not to be confused with the Chas Smash-sung 'Madness (Is All in The Mind)', which featured on the band's The Rise & Fall album.

    We're talking about the Prince Buster song, which the Buster superfans named themselves after.

    The original was released on Buster's debut album I Feel the Spirit. Madness's cover featured on their debut album One Step Beyond...

    It was a re-recording, with the band's first version featuring as the B-side of their debut single 'The Prince', another tribute to Buster's influence. The band took Buster's song as a template and made it their own, giving that Jamaican ska sound a decidedly Nutty London sheen.

14. One Step Beyond

    

    Madness - One Step Beyond (Official 4k Video)

    Not content with launching themselves with a tribute song to the man, naming themselves after one of his songs and covering that song for good measure, Madness also covered ANOTHER Prince Buster song 'One Step Beyond', releasing it as their second single and naming their debut album after it.

    They added a Chas Smash spoken-word intro to the Buster instrumental, yoinking the "Don't watch that, watch this" from yet another song by the Prince, 'Scorcher'. This was despite Chas not being a full-fledged member of the band just yet (he'd join formally the following year).

    Their second single was their first top ten, with the track peaking at number seven and eventually going Gold. It did even better in France, oddly enough, reaching number one there on the back of half a million sales.

15. The Prince

    

    Madness - The Prince (Official HD Video)

    The last of our back-to-back-to-back Prince Buster trilogy, as we've said, 'The Prince' wasn't a Buster cover, but instead the band's own tribute to their most crucial influence.

    It was written by Lee Thompson and produced by Clive Langer and would be Madness's sole release on the 2 Tone label, the genre-specific label founded by Jerry Dammers of The Specials, before they moved over to indie Stiff.

    The song honoured Buster ("Buster, he sold the heat with a rock-steady beat") while also outlining the band's own plans to entertain ("This may not be uptown Jamaica, but we promise you a treat").

16. Baggy Trousers

    

    Madness - Baggy Trousers (Official 4K Video)

    After the stop gap Work Rest and Play EP, Madness pushed on from their Buster-focused debut to really refine their sound on second album Absolutely.

    Written by Suggs with guitarist Chris Foreman, 'Baggy Trousers' was a tale of "Naughty boys in nasty schools" growing up as wrong 'uns that went all the way to number three in the UK singles chart.

    "I was very specifically trying to write a song in the style of Ian Dury, especially the songs he was writing then," Suggs said, explaining the "constant stream" of "catalogues of phrases".

    He also contrasted the bad behaviour of the kids in his own comprehensive school to the strict discipline of Pink Floyd's posher experience in 'Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2'.

17. House of Fun

    

    Madness - House of Fun (Official 4K Video)

    A standalone hit in 1982 – in fact still Madness's only number one single on the UK charts - 'House of Fun' was very nearly not 'House of Fun'.

    The song was written by Mike Barson and Lee Thompson and initially even recorded as 'Chemist Facade' when Stiff Records boss Dave Robinson popped his head round the corner and decided that this song really needed a chorus.

    Mike Barson got on the piano and came up with the goods instantly, but rather then start from scratch, they actually inserted the "Welcome to the House of Fun" chorus into the existing recording. Not an easy feat given that this was in the days of analogue studios.

    After being performed on The Young Ones, the song was first included on the Complete Madness compilation before popping up on many other best-ofs. It enjoyed a 1992 re-release where it popped back into the top 40.

18. It Must Be Love

    

    Madness - It Must Be Love (Official HD Video)

    Beyond their early Prince Buster fixation and late-era covers album The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1, when it came to their singles Madness generally kept to their own material.

    That made sense, given just how many talented songwriters there were in the seven-strong lineup.

    But one of their finest ever singles was a cover: In 1981 Madness released 'It Must Be Love', which had been a hit for Labi Siffre a decade earlier.

    An absolutely gorgeous cover, it reached number four in the singles chart and on its re-release in 1992 went top ten again, this time getting to number six. Despite not being one of their own compositions, it's become a regular fixture in the bands' live setlist and an absolute fan favourite.

19. My Girl

    

    Madness - My Girl (Official Video)

    Not a cover of the 1964 hit of the same name by The Temptations, but a song every bit as fantastic as that Motown classic.

    After the brilliant but admittedly derivative double header of 'The Prince' and 'One Step Beyond', 'My Girl' felt like proof that Madness were very much their own thing.

    The lyric was inspired by a colleague of Mike Barson when he worked as delivery driver, constantly banging on about "my girl". In fact, Barson was the original singer of the song before they changed things up and gave Suggs the lead.

    It was an early bit of evidence that Madness had much more emotional depth to their words ("Why can't I explain? / Why do I feel this pain?") than the pure Nuttiness their appearance might suggest.

20. Our House

    

    Madness - Our House (Official 4K Video)

    Written by Chas Smash and Chris Foreman 'Our House' was the lead single from Madness's fourth studio album The Rise & Fall.

    It went to number five in the UK, which was pretty standard for Madness. Even more impressively, it went to number seven in the US, becoming only their second charting hit there, and their sole top ten.

    'Our House' melded rootsy lyrics about working class life in London with the joyous ska influence that Madness had displayed since their inception as the North London Invaders.

    It's become one of the band's many standard bearers. They performed it on The Young Ones and when the band had their own jukebox musical on London's West End it was called... Our House