Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (12" Disco Version)

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Disco Version) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Ian Dury was 37 when Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick was released in late 1978.

Over the past 18 months, he had released four singles and an album with The Blockheads, achieving some success. Before that, he spent seven years with the pub rock band Kilburn & The High Roads.

It has since emerged that Dury actually wrote the famous multilingual lyrics for Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick four years before the song was recorded. He had posted a manuscript to a friend in 1974, which included directions for possible effects and sounds that eventually appeared in the final track, alongside a very similar set of lyrics.

Dury admitted he hadn’t been particularly excited by the lyrics when they were written but grew to feel they had something unique. The song is one of Dury’s many “list” songs and, according to him, conveys an anti-violence message. Blockheads keyboardist and songwriter Chaz Jankel revealed that the music for the track evolved from the freestyle piano section toward the end of Wake Up and Make Love With Me, a track from the

Blockheads’ debut album. Dury later matched his archived lyrics to the new composition.

At the time, Ian Dury preferred not to include singles on his albums, so this track didn’t feature on their second album, Do It Yourself, which was being recorded around the same time.

The recording sessions took place at Workhouse Studios on the Old Kent Road in London, a studio later owned by Pete Waterman, who recorded Rick Astley there, among others. The producer was Laurie Latham, early in what would become a highly successful career. He had recently worked with George Harrison on music for Monty Python and the Holy Grail and later produced hits for The Stranglers, The Christians, Paul Young, and Echo & The Bunnymen.

As The Blockheads and Ian Dury were accomplished live performers, the sessions consisted of a series of live takes, with the band choosing their preferred version for the single. Latham described watching the band from the control room: Chaz Jankel playing a grand piano covered in blankets, Mickey Gallagher on Hammond organ, Charley Charles on drums, Norman Watt-Roy on bass, Johnny Turnbull on guitar, and Ian Dury on a stool in the center with a handheld mic.

“I was never happy with the mix,” Latham later admitted. “My authority had diminished, and it was a free-for-all, with the whole band in there while Chaz basically took over. We mixed it in one pass, like a joint performance.” Despite limitations such as poor instrument separation and minimal equipment, the final recording emerged full of character. Both Latham and Jankel felt it had the potential to reach number one.

And so it did. Initially held at number two by The Village People’s YMCA, the track eventually reached the top spot. The band celebrated with new suits and a triumphant Top of the Pops performance. The single sold 979,000 copies on its initial release and has since surpassed the million mark.

Although no extended version was released in the UK, the US version added over a minute and leaned into a more disco-influenced sound, labeled the “Disco Version.” On the flip side was the follow-up hit, Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3. Together, these tracks formed a fabulous package, with the wide grooves of the 12” vinyl amplifying the rhythm and providing the perfect foundation for Dury’s rich vocals.

Year: 1979 Label: Stiff Records Cat no: 48-50779