\u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0was released digitally in 2005 and has been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales and streaming equivalent exceeding 400,000 units.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no financial gain, we haven\u2019t gotten paid. We\u2019ve never been compensated for this song. Right now, we are in litigation, and we have lawyers working on it. We have the same set of lawyers who represented Max Romeo and his estate,\u201d Althea told the\u00a0Jamaica Observer\u00a0on Friday shortly after she learnt about\u00a0\u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019s\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>latest milestone.<\/p>\n Her colleague Donna said that when the song became a hit, they had lawyers working on securing their interests, but the effort failed.<\/p>\n \u201cWow, bwoy, is like I just heard it [the news] from Donna and now you. I am happy and surprised. This is not normal, we still a kick up,\u201d Althea stated with a laugh.<\/p>\n As for the song\u2019s staying power, she said: \u201cWe never imagined that this song would have been #1. Not even while we were recording it. It\u2019s like it\u2019s almost a phenomenon and it\u2019s a really good feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Donna concurred: \u201cTo be a part of something this great, that\u2019s the [great] feeling I have right now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>\u2018Uptown Top Ranking<\/em><\/strong>\u2019<\/strong> was recorded at Gibbs\u2019 studio on Retirement Road in Cross Roads, St Andrew. Althea and Donna, fresh out of Immaculate Conception and Queens high schools, respectively, came up with the idea for the song while enjoying a day on the beach with friends.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember we went to the studio on a Sunday morning, and Jacob Miller took us into the studio. He insisted that the song was going to be a hit, and he was right. We were teenagers and we were just having fun. But a hit song? That never crossed our minds,\u201d Donna recalled.<\/p>\n Consequently, when\u00a0\u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0topped charts locally it caught the duo by surprise.<\/p>\n Said Donna: \u201cIs (music selector) Bobby T called me and tell mi say the song a gwaan good a Jamaica, and then Althea called and asked mi if mi not coming home, because the song was #1. I was out of the country at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0was also a hit in Europe, soaring to #23 in Belgium; #2 in Ireland; and #25 in The Netherlands. At the height of its success in the United Kingdom, the duo performed on the popular\u00a0Top Of The Pops<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0television show on\u00a0British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n They are not the only ones proud of their accomplishment.<\/p>\n \u201cOur kids are very proud, dem proud a dem parents. But one thing that I\u2019d change if we could do it all over again is, sign some proper contracts and learn more about the music business,\u201d Althea disclosed.<\/p>\n Althea and Donna released one album,\u00a0\u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019<\/em><\/strong>. It was done for Frontline, a subsidiary of Virgin Records. Today, Althea Forrest resides in Atlanta, while Donna Reid resides in Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2026still no compensation 48 years later Forty-eight years after their hit song \u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019 was released, members of the duo, Althea and Donna, say they are yet to receive any royalty payments. Released in 1977, and produced by Joe Gibbs, it topped the British pop chart in early 1978. \u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019\u00a0was released digitally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":11708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11714,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713\/revisions\/11714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ALTHEA-DONNA-PIC-2-269x300.jpg\")
\u201cWe just went ahead with our lives,\u201d Althea chimed in. Despite the lack of financial compensation,\u00a0\u2018Uptown Top Ranking\u2019s\u2019<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0gold certification has made the ladies, now in their mid-60s, proud.<\/p>\n