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Bad to the Bone 1992
Album · by Inner Circle ↗ View artist

Bad to the Bone

Bad to the Bone is the album where Inner Circle took their reggae sound with fusion touches into a more direct, almost danceable territory. Recorded in two versions for different markets —one for the U.S. and another international—, the album was released in 1992 under different labels in each case: RAS for the former and WEA for the latter. The U.S. version, which would later have a reissue in 1993 under the name Bad Boys, ended up being the most successful in sales, reaching platinum status. What started as a project with parallel versions ended up defining the band’s commercial path, though each edition held its own surprises in the tracks.

Year
1992
Songs
18
Duration
74 min 31 seg

18 song|s

Song list

# Title Available ⏱
01

Sweat (A La La La La long)

3:46 02

Shock Out Jamaican Style

3:43 03

Bad to the Bone

4:50 04

Rock With You

4:23 05

Long Time (Selassie a Warn Yu)

3:30 06

Hey Love

4:22 07

Slow It Down

4:02 08

Living It Up

3:54 09

Stuck in the Middle

4:12 10

Looking for a Better Way

4:06 11

Wrapped Up in Your Love

3:39 12

Bad Boys

3:50 13

Party Party

4:38 14

Sunglasses at Nite

3:42 15

Tear Down These Walls

4:26 16

Down by the River

4:16 17

Hold on to the Ridim

4:53 18

Why Them Gwan So

4:19

About the album

Bad to the Bone, according to DoReSol

The songs that made the biggest impact came from both main versions: Sweat (A La La La La Long), Rock with You and Bad Boys were the singles that crossed borders. But where the difference is noticeable is in the details: the international edition included Stuck in the Middle and different versions of Rock With You, while the U.S. one added remixes like the Dancehall Mix of Sweat or the David Morales Mix of Bad Boys. The Bad Boys reissue even incorporated new songs for the local market, such as Living It Up and Hey Love, which had not appeared in the original material before. The Grammy for Best Reggae Album won by the U.S. version in 1993 was just the confirmation that sometimes, second chances are the ones that leave a mark.

What’s curious is how the album plays with length: the U.S. version clocks in at just over an hour, while the international one exceeds an hour and twelve minutes. That’s no coincidence: each market had its own audience and expectations. Producers Ian Lewis, Touter Harvey and Roger Lewis worked with that idea in mind, adjusting the material so it would sound fresh in every context. The result was an album that, without entirely aiming for it, ended up being key to understanding how reggae could sound just as good in a New York club as on a beach in Jamaica.