{"id":540125,"date":"2026-03-23T08:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/540125\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:37:15","slug":"on-the-charts-46-years-ago-this-british-invasion-loving-band-who-emerged-from-the-london-punk-scene-scored-its-first-uk-no-1-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/540125\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Charts 46 Years Ago, This British Invasion-Loving Band Who Emerged from the London Punk Scene Scored Its First UK No. 1 Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the late 1970s and early 1980s no rock band was bigger in the United Kingdom than The Jam<\/a>. The London trio of singer\/guitarist Paul Weller<\/a>, bassist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Rick Buckler emerged from the London punk scene. Although, the group was heavily influenced by such melodic British Invasion groups as The Beatles, The Kinks, and especially The Who\u2019s mod era, as well as by Motown.<\/p>\n

Forty-six years ago, on March 22, 1980, The Jam scored the first of four No. 1 hits on the U.K. singles chart<\/a> with the power-pop anthem \u201cGoing Underground.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: 4 Mod Classics by The Jam That Every New Fan Must Know]<\/a><\/p>\n

The song was released as a two-sided, non-album single, along with \u201cThe Dreams Of Children,\u201d on March 10, 1980. \u201cGoing Underground\u201d debuted at No. 1, knocking disco singer Fern Kinney\u2019s pop ballad \u201cTogether We Are Beautiful\u201d from the top of the chart. After a three-week run \u201cGoing Underground\u201d was replaced at No. 1 by The Spinners\u2019 medley \u201cWorking My Way Back to You\/Forgive Me, Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing Underground,\u201d which was written by Weller, is a pointed critique of the U.K. government spending an exorbitant amount of money on nuclear weapons rather than on the National Health Service.<\/p>\n

In 2022 interview with Total Guitar, reported by MusicRadar.com<\/a>, Weller noted, \u201cIt was borne out of the political state we were in at the time. Whether it was youthful paranoia or whatever, I thought we were on the brink of devastation really. We were building up our nuclear missiles, especially in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jam was touring the U.S. when \u201cGoing Underground\u201d hit No. 1 in the U.K. The band proceeded to cancel its remaining stateside dates. They flew back to the U.K. to appear on The Top Of The Pops TV show.<\/p>\n

About \u201cThe Dreams Of Children\u201d<\/p>\n

As for \u201cThe Dreams Of Children,\u201d it initially was intended to be the A-side of the single with \u201cGoing Underground.\u201d The latter tune wound up becoming more popular, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dreams Of Children,\u201d which also was written by Weller, is a hard-driving but melodic song with some psychedelic influences. Lyrically, the song features themes touching on how youthful optimism often turns to disillusionment as a person deals with the reality of the modern world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dreams Of Children\u201d was recorded near the end of the sessions for The Jam\u2019s 1979 album, Setting Sons. The beginning of the track features a brief backwards snippet of the Jam song \u201cThick As Thieves.\u201d Weller had been listening to The Beatles\u2019 Revolver album a lot around that time. He liked the Fab Four\u2019s use of backwards recording. He asked a studio engineer to make a recording of Setting Sons backwards. From there, they came up with the idea for \u201cThe Dreams Of Children\u201d while listening to that.<\/p>\n

More About The Jam and Paul Weller<\/p>\n

The Jam\u2019s other No. 1 hits in the U.K. were \u201cStart!\u201d (1980), \u201cA Town Called Malice\u201d\/\u201cPrecious\u201d (1982), and \u201cBeat Surrender\u201d (1982).<\/p>\n

The band had a strong cult following in the U.S., but never enjoyed major commercial success in the States.<\/p>\n

The Jam broke up in 1982 when Weller left the band to form the R&B\/soul-influenced group The Style Council. Weller launched a prolific solo career in 1990.<\/p>\n

(Photo by FG\/Bauer-Griffin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the late 1970s and early 1980s no rock band was bigger in the United Kingdom than The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2617,88,216,241799],"class_list":{"0":"post-540125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-classic-rock","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-the-jam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}