After 'doing' New Orleans boogie woogie on 'Lady Madonna', 'Ob-La-D i- Ob-La-Da' was Paul McCartney's touchy feely stab at ska. And whatever your views are on The Beatles song, they're likely to be broadly similar to your views on this - in its telling of Desmond and Molly's domestic bliss, McCartney's cut has a throwaway bounce and breeze (that's out of all proportion to the length of time it took to record). Marmalade slightly tighten the rhythm and drop the comic interjections (including the infamous gender bending 'mistake' in the last verse) to make sure it found a pop audience, yet despite the trims, it's Jamaican roots shine through, perhaps even moreso than on 'Baby Come Back' - is that a slight patois that singer Dean Ford is trying hard to pretend he's not trying to adopt?* It's too happy to hate, but there's little here to admire save the cross genre journeyman writing chops of McCartney and his willingness to dabble. Is that enough? Probably not, but Marmalade/Shmarmalade - this would have been a hit for anyone.* To ram the point home, there's a contemporary YouTube clip of them performing this while a label for 'Rose's West Indian Marmalade' flashes behind them in a very unsubliminal bit of messaging acrossing. The wags.
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