UB40 scored platinum sales certifications with “Labour of Love” in 1983 and “Labour of Love II” in 1989, collections of covers of the band’s favorite songs. Many UB40 albums, but those in particular, include the group’s takes on old reggae songs, many of which were written by music industry neophytes in Jamaica, whose efforts were exploited by producers. “These artists came from a world where the producer would give ’em fifty dollars and they’d make the record and f*** off,” UB40 singer Ali Campbell told Billboard. Those producers would then rake in royalties and proceeds on those recordings forever, while the song’s original writers and artists might never see a penny.

After they started recording their favorite reggae songs, UB40 sought to right the wrongs done to the writers of those tunes. When they covered a chestnut, the band would track down the original writer and register them with PRS, the major royalty collection agency in the U.K. For example, when UB40 scored a huge British hit with “Kingston Town” in 1989, songwriting royalties finally went to writer Lord Creator. “He came to meet us at the airport in Jamaica and he brought his whole family, dressed up like it was Sunday,” Campbell said. “He told us he’d been very ill and couldn’t pay his bills. How he’s paid his bills, built a house, and eating sweeties every day.”

UB40 hit big in the group’s native U.K. a lot faster than they did in the U.S. Reggae is much more widely popular in Britain than it is in America, and by the time UB40 hit No. 1 in the U.K. for the first time in 1983 with “Red Red Wine,” it had already hit the top 40 with eight other singles. Meanwhile, in the U.S., “Red Red Wine” marked the first time UB40 appeared on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at a respectable No. 34 in 1984 (via Stereogum). A year later, the group’s U.K. No. 1, a cover of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” did alright in the U.S., stalling at No. 28.

But then, almost inexplicably, “Red Red Wine” became intensely, phenomenally popular in the U.S. — five years after its debut. In June 1988, UB40 performed at Freedomfest: Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday, a televised concert from London’s Wembley Stadium celebrating the life and achievements of then-imprisoned anti-apartheid crusader Nelson Mandela. According to Billboard, a Phoenix DJ named Guy Zapoleon saw UB40’s “Red Red Wine” cover and liked the song so much that he added it to the playlist on his nationally syndicated show. That boosted the song’s profile, and numerous DJs across the U.S. added it to their playlists, and before long, “Red Red Wine” sat at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

In 1993, UB40 experienced the biggest hit of its lengthy existence when “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” a synth-and-drum-machine drenched and reggae-flavored uptempo cover of Elvis Presley’s ballad, spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, notes Cleveland.com. That song’s journey to the top was a long and unlikely one.

According to UB40 guitarist Robin Campbell in Far Out, the band members were far from “raving Elvis fans” but nevertheless jumped on the opportunity to record a song for the 1992 Nicolas Cage comedy “Honeymoon in Vegas,” which features a lot of Presley imagery and had a soundtrack consisting entirely of his covers. Filmmakers allowed acts to record whatever song they liked for submission, and at the suggestion of drummer Jimmy Brown (via “1000 U.K. Number One Hits”), UB40 went with “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” However, other acts had chosen the same song — director Andrew Bergman used Bono’s cover on the soundtrack and Clarence Giddons and Bruno Hernandez’s in the film itself. UB40 still liked their rejected version, however, and saved it for inclusion on its 1993 album “Promises and Lies.” And then it was used on a different soundtrack, to the 1993 Sharon Stone erotic thriller “Sliver.” “And it made number one in something like 30 countries,” Campbell boasted.

The lead singer, the keyboardist, and the guy who did the quintessentially reggae element of “toasting” represented a considerable consolidation of what made UB40 so special. And so, after all three — Ali Campbell, Mickey Virtue, and Astro — had left the group they founded together, they joined forces to create a new band called UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell, Astro, and Mickey Virtue, according to Swan Turton. Meanwhile, the remnants of UB40 (led by Ali Campbell’s brothers, Robin and Duncan Campbell) continued on under its original name (per Birmingham Live) — and in 2014, filed suit against the splinter group for improper use of the band’s famous moniker.

Eventually, both groups were allowed to continue to use the names they’d settled on, although the offshoot band changed its name after the 2018 departure of Virtue to merely UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell and Astro. In 2018, the newer, smaller, sort-of-UB40 released an album that felt very much like it could have come from the older, fully together UB40 — an album of loving reggae covers called “A Real Labour of Love.”

By 2021, with the acrimonious departures of Ali Campbell, Mickey Virtue, and Astro, the once well-populated UB40 was down to only a few original members. With Ali Campbell out, his brother, guitarist Robin Campbell, took over the band and brought in their brother, Duncan Campbell, to be the singer in 2008. (According to the BBC, the newest Campbell sang in a vocal harmony group with his brothers as a child and was also a former professional spoons player.) 

In August 2020, according to UB40’s Twitter account, Duncan Campbell was hospitalized after suffering the effects of a stroke. After spending several months recovering from the medical episode, he announced on a UB40 fan site that he had retired from his band and music in general “due to continued ill health.” (A few days later, UB40 announced, via Yahoo! News, that Duncan Campbell’s replacement would be Matt Doyle, singer for the band Kioko, UB40’s opening act on its 2018 tour.)

Less than two months after Duncan Campbell’s departure, UB40 suffered a tragedy when it lost founding member, saxophonist, lyricist, and arranger Brian Travers. According to the BBC, Travers underwent surgery in 2019 to remove two cancerous brain tumors and had another surgical procedure earlier in 2021. He died in August 2021 at age 62.