The link between bouncy music-hall and Jamaican pop would create whole careers for some people, though Paul McCartney didn’t get the mix right. The crucial ingredients he’s missing are wit and bite – there’s no reason that good-time party music needs to be sappy too, and this mushy game of happy families is just that, in original or Marmalade form. He hadn’t quite lost the common touch as a writer – this would have been an easy chart-topper for the Beatles too, if they’d put aside squabbling long enough – and the Marmalade version probably improves on its source by moving even further away from mock-ska and into safer knees-up territory. But it’s hard to escape the feeling that this is a singalong too far.
Score: 3
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