With its catchy tune and completely crazy nonsense lyric, Dillinger had a hit that took London’s punk and reggae fans by storm back in 1976.

Today I’m going to tell you the right way and the proper way to spell New York – “A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork. That’s the way to spell New York.”

This is one of the most bonkers songs in the entire reggae canon. It’s not really reggae at all – it’s built around a sample not from a classic rocksteady riddim but a minor hit, Do It Any Way You Wanna, by a US funk band, People’s Choice.

Insanely catchy – were it not for the subject matter, it would make a great children’s song – it improbably topped the charts in Holland (and reached number two in Belgium). Here, of course, the radio stations, wouldn’t touch it – apart from pirate radio, where it was on constant rotation back in 1976.

Dillinger (aka Lester Bullock) was a protege of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and one of the explosion of toasters inspired by originators like Big Youth and U-Roy, along with the likes of Ranking Trevor, Trinity and I-Roy, Tapper Zukie and Prince Far I.

I still have this 12-inch on the Black Swan label, released before it was re-released after Dillinger signed to Island Records. A sequel a few years later – Marijuana In My Brain – failed to match its success.