The Return of the Los Palmas 7

"The Return of the Los Palmas 7"
Single by Madness
from the album Absolutely
B-side	"That's the Way to Do It" "Swan Lake"
Released	16 January 1981 (1981-01-16)
Format	7" vinyl, 12" vinyl
Recorded	1980
Genre	2-tone, pop
Length	2:33 (single version); 2.03 (album version)
Label	Stiff
Writer(s)	Music: Mike Barson, Daniel Woodgate and Mark Bedford
Producer(s)	Clive Langer, Alan Winstanley
Madness singles chronology
"Embarrassment" (1980) "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" (1981) "Grey Day" (1981)
Absolutely track listing Side one "Baggy Trousers" "Embarrassment" "E.R.N.I.E." "Close Escape" "Not Home Today" "On the Beat Pete" "Solid Gone" Side two "Take It or Leave It" "Shadow of Fear" "Disappear" "Overdone" "In the Rain" "You Said" "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" Divine Madness track listing "Embarrassment" (6) "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" (7) "Grey Day" (8)

"The Return of the Los Palmas 7" is a song by British ska/pop band Madness, written by Mike Barson, Mark Bedford and Daniel Woodgate.^[1] The song was Woodgate's first credit as a songwriter, and was released as the band's 7th single on 16 January 1981 (1981-01-16).^[2] The single reached number 7 in the UK, and remained in the charts for 7 weeks.^[2] The single release was slightly different from the track on the album Absolutely, and was roughly 30 seconds longer.

The song is mainly instrumental, except for some ad-libbing by Chas Smash at the beginning, the sound of "Waiter!" approximately 42 seconds into the track, and "Good night!" at the very end. Dave Robinson, head of Stiff Records, was keen on Madness recording another instrumental track, especially after the success of "One Step Beyond...".^[2] The resulting song was not as ska influenced as their earlier songs, and was played heavily on BBC Radio 2.^[2] This helped Madness gain a new generation of older fans.^[2]

Music video

The music video for the single was filmed in January, 1981 at the Venus Cafe, west London and Kenwood Park, North London.^[2]

The video mainly features the band in the cafe, switching between a greasy spoon scene, and an elegant restaurant scene. Around the half-way mark of the video, the band are also shown dressed as cowboys in Kenwood Park. These three scenarios are interspersed between random clips. It is these clips of random events or people which make up the bulk of the video. The video was only filmed two weeks prior to the release of the single, which may explain why so much of the video is random footage, as opposed to footage of the band. Some of these clips are also in the video for the Bob Marley song "One Love" which also happens to include a guest appearance by Suggs and Chas Smash.

The song is incorrectly titled "Return to the Los Palmas 7" in the credit block, appearing both at the head and tail of the video.

The clips which are interspersed throughout the video are chronologically summarised below, as well as giving the approximate time the clip makes an appearance.

Clips used

Appearances

In addition to its single release and appearance on the album Absolutely, "The Return of the Los Palmas 7" also appears on the Madness collections Divine Madness (a.k.a. The Heavy Heavy Hits), Complete Madness, It's... Madness Too, The Business, Our House and Ultimate Collection.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "The Return of the Los Palmas 7".

7" vinyl single

12" vinyl single

Included with the 12" single was a copy of the first edition of "The Nutty Boys" comic. The demo version of "My Girl" is notable for being the first officially released Madness track to feature a lead vocal by Mike Barson; it would take another 28 years before a second Barson vocal track was released on the "Sugar and Spice" download single.

Chart performance

References