Baggy Trousers

Suggs later recalled in an interview that "I was very specifically trying to write a song in the style of Ian Dury, especially the songs he was writing then, which [were] often sort of catalogues of phrases in a constant stream." He contrasted "Baggy Trousers" with Pink Floyd's 1979 single "Another Brick in the Wall": "I was writing about my time at school. Pink Floyd had that big hit with 'teacher, leave those kids alone'. It didn't really relate to me, because I hadn't been to a public school where I was bossed about and told to sing "Rule Britannia!" and all that", having instead attended a comprehensive school with much less strictly enforced discipline. == Music video ==

The music video of the song was shot in Kentish Town in northwest London: at the Kentish Town C of E primary school on Islip Street and the Peckwater Estate. Thompson recreated the moment live at the band's reunion concert in 1992, Madstock!, during the band's 2007 Christmas tour, and the 2009 Glastonbury Festival as well as in a 2011 TV advert for Kronenbourg 1664 in which the band plays a slow version of "Baggy Trousers". The slow version was later released that same year on the box set A Guided Tour of Madness under the title "Le Grand Pantalon". Second vocalist Chas Smash is shown playing the harmonica in the video, but it was actually played by multi-instrumentalist Mike Barson. The video received great positive response from the public, and was particularly important as it demonstrated the potential for television shows such as Top of the Pops to show a band's music videos instead of having them perform live. Following the release of "Baggy Trousers", the public began to anticipate future Madness music videos. == Appearances ==

In addition to its single release and appearance on the album Absolutely, "Baggy Trousers" also appears on the Madness collections Divine Madness (a.k.a. The Heavy Heavy Hits), Complete Madness, ''It's... Madness, Total Madness, The Business and Our House: The Original Songs. Its only appearance on a US Madness compilation is on Ultimate Collection''. The song was featured in the sports comedy film Mean Machine (2001), and was included in the accompanying soundtrack. In 2011, the song was slowed down to half its normal speed and was used for an advert for the Kronenbourg 1664 'Slow' campaign (see above). In 1983, Colgate used the song's melody in a television advertisement written by Jay Pond-Jones and Ric Cooper in which a group of kids including actor Lee Ross sing newly written lyrics about Colgate Blue Minty Gel toothpaste, a variant of which was later used in the United States. The advert was seen as groundbreaking but had to be pre-approved by the band. Pond-Jones said, "Many years later ... I found out how they actually quite liked it. Even now, Carl from the band introduces me to people as “the bloke who did the Colgate ad”." == Track listing ==

7" 12" (Record Store Day 2022) == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Certifications and sales ==