Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. 1 Tears Of A Clown
2. 2 Ranking Full Stop
3. 3 Hand’s Off She’s Mine
4. 4 Twist And Crawl
5. 5 Mirror In The Bathroom
6. 6 Jackpot
7. 7 Stand Down Margaret
8. 8 Best Friend
9. 9 Too Nice To Talk To
10. 10 Rough Rider
11. 11 Click Click
12. 12 Big Shot
13. 13 Two Swords
14. 14 Noise In This World
15. 15 All Out To Get You
16. 16 French Toast (Soleil Trop Chaud)
17. 17 Drowning
18. 18 Dream Home In New Zealand
19. 19 The Limits We Set

Disc 2:

1. Doors Of Your Heart
2. Save It For Later
3. Sole Salvation
4. Can’t Get Used To Losing You
5. Get A Job
6. Walk Away
7. Over And Over
8. Cheated
9. Ackee 1 2 3
10. Monkey Murders
11. Jeanette
12. I Confess
13. Spar Wid Me
14. Sorry
15. She's Going
16. Pato And Roger A Go Talk
17. Sugar And Stress
18. End Of The Party

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3933 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Customer Reviews

Every home should have a copy!
The Beat (The English Beat, overseas) were a multi-racial, Birmingham based, pop group who came to prominence during the 2Tone boom of 1979. Their three terrific studio albums (1980's I Just Can't Stop It, Wha'ppen from 1981 and the wonderful but underrated Special Beat Service from 1982) flirted with 60s ska & rocksteady, jagged post-punk, calypso, 70s style political roots reggae, Motown soul and Beatles/Kinks inspired pop. Despite the consistently high quality of their material, The Beat's record sales began to wane once the British public lost interest in ska revival. The group folded in 1983 but spawned two spin-off acts...General Public and highly successful Fine Young Cannibals.

While there are now quite a few Beat compilations out there, this is definitely the ONE to own. 37 tracks spread over two compact discs. Included are (almost) all the singles (1981's Hit It has yet to appear on any Beat "best of") and lots of fantastic selections from the three long players. Unfortunately the compilers weren't able to secure the rights to B sides like Which Side of the Bed, What's Your Best Thing and Psychedelic Rockers. Despite their absence, You Just Can't Beat It is an outstanding collection from a band who were at times unfairly overshadowed by 2Tone era peers The Specials and Madness.

Liner notes are by former Bodysnatchers and Special AKA vocalist Rhoda Dakar.

You Can't Beat it For Value
`You Just Can't Beat it' is subtitle `The Best of The Beat' but with thirty seven tracks spread over two discs it would be possibly truer to call it `All of The Beat' with very few omissions stopping this been their entire back catalogue. It is definitely quicker to isolate what is not on this album rather than what is included.

The album opens with Two Tone debut single `Tears of a Clown' b/w `Ranking Full Stop' before moving through the three singles and various album tracks taken from debut album `I Just Can't Stop it', in fact only one track is omitted which is the Price Buster cover `Whine and Grine' which is no-doubt omitted due to it's been re-worked as the single `Stand Down Margaret'.

Between album single `Too Nice to Talk to' is here but not b-side `Psychedelic Rockers' before we get eleven of the twelve tracks from second album `Wha'ppen?', the only track missing being `I Am Your Flag'.

The next single was the Mike Hedge's produced `Hit It' b/w `Which Side of the Bed' which is not a surprise to be missing as all previous Beat compilations have tried to write this disappointing 45 out of the bands history.

Of the Twelve tracks on third album `Special Beat Service' again eleven are included here, the missing track is `Rotating Heads' which is a surprise omission as it was used in the film `Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. The only other track missing here is the b-side of `Save it for Later' `What's Your Best Thing?'.

I Imagine the missing seven tracks could have fitted on the discs which would have made for a comprehensive anthology, anyway it's still good value for money as a anthology with a couple of omissions or a best of that goes a bit further. You Just Can't Beat it.

Best Beat Compilation yet, but....
This double CD is basically a combination of the three albums the group released in their all too brief career and for anyone who doesn't own any of the albums it's a brilliant buy. For those who have them though (like me), it's case of 'nothing to see here'.
As the previous reveiwer said, the later B-sides are missing, which is a real shame, but you can get 'What's Your Best Thing?'(along with 'Hit It') on the US version of the otherwise inferior compilation 'What Is Beat?'
A truly great band!