Category Archives: ska

The 20 Best Ska Songs of All-Time

I’ve been a fan of ska music was since I was a teenager. I played the trombone in the marching band, so I always thought I would make a ska band one day, but I wasn’t really good at it.

There are many ska bands that broke into the mainstream, but some of the best bands never reached that level.

I formed a list of the 20 best ska songs of all-time. I didn’t want to repeat bands, so I didn’t list ten Operation Ivy tracks, which would probably happen. I know I didn’t list The Toasters, The Specials and some of the other great ska bands, but it was hard to narrow down this list to only 20 songs.

Here are the top 20 ska songs of all-time (in no particular order).

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Reel Big Fish covers Aha’s "Take On Me"

Ska music was an early musical influence in my life. I played the trombone for eight years and had aspirations of starting a ska band at one time. Back at the beginning of my music journalism career, I had the opportunity to interview Reel Big Fish. I didn’t have an issue of being starstruck when meeting a band up to that point, but because “Turn the Radio Off” was one of my first CDs I ever purchased, it happened.

I booked an interview with the band at a Warped Tour stop and it was over 100 degrees in Chicago that day. They wanted to go inside their tour bus to do the interview. It was one of the first times I went on a band’s tour bus, but certainly not the last (I’m sure I will write a future post about some of my concert adventures with bands).

Aha’s “Take On Me” was one of the first music videos I remember watching on MTV. They are one of the first one-hit wonders people think of when hearing that term. When I heard Reel Big Fish cover the song for the first time, I saw Heaven. The cover has been released for over 15 years and I’m sure you have heard it before, but I had to post this song during ‘Cover Song Month‘.

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The Song Of The Day – The Urge (Brainless)

I was recently talking to a girl and she mentioned that she liked The Urge. It made me nostalgic, ’cause I used to listen to their albums all the time, plus it probably earned me some points be having a common interest. We all know that “America’s White Boy,” a.k.a. Sweetbob, likes racking up them points.

I used to be all about ska music. I still enjoy it, but I’m not exactly cranking it up these days. I still like Reel Big Fish, Mighty Might Bosstones, old Less Than Jake, and The Urge. The Urge came into the mainstream in 1995 and stuck around until 2001. They broke-up due to “musical differences,” which is code for “we didn’t sell enough records to tolerate being stuck in a van/bus with dudes anymore.” They had a sound that wasn’t 100% ska, they mixed in harder guitars that made them sound more like 311 at times.

The Urge’s best albums were “Receiving The Gift Of Flavor” and “Master Of Styles.” I tried to embed the video for “Jump Right In,” but unfortunately it didn’t work, but here is the video for “Brainless,” the video isn’t that creative, but the song is still a classic.

A Sports & Entertainment blog that focuses on absurdity in sports, snarky banter, updates on Tim Tebow’s virginity, and decent sports gambling advice.