Written by Norman Cook, "Dub Be Good to Me" was the sole number one single for Cook's outfit Beats International. The track started out as an instrumental with the title "The Invasion of the Estate Agents". While also included as the B-side to this single, it originally appeared as the B-side to Cook's 1989 single "For Spacious Lies". This instrumental track is heavily based on the bassline from The Clash's "Guns of Brixton", with a sample of the distinctive "harmonica" theme from the epic western film Once Upon a Time in the West, written by Ennio Morricone. This instrumental, in slightly remixed form, had vocals added from The SOS Band's "Just Be Good to Me" to form "Dub Be Good to Me". The track also features the distinctive vocals of David John-Baptiste, more commonly known as DJ Deejay or just DJ. The opening and closing line "tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty you're listening to the boy from the big bad city, this is jam hot, this is jam hot" was from Johnny Dynell's 1983 hit "Jam Hot" and became an instant classic and was repeated often, being used as the most common reference to the song. The song was a hit, spending four weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in March 1990. It was the seventh best-selling single of 1990 in the UK. In the U.S., the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and #76 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Smith & Mighty Remix was included in Pitchfork Media's 2010 list of "twenty-five great remixes" of the 1990s. Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger ranked the song as the 97th best single of the 1990s, and described it as "the Wild Bunch/Massive Attack dub-dance Bristol sound, commercialised before it had even come close to breaking through."
Critical reception
editor Rick Anderson wrote that the bassline from "Guns of Brixton" is "churning underneath an otherwise relatively faithful rendition of the SOS Band's "Just Be Good to Me"". Bill Coleman from Billboard described the song as a "reggae-fled, Soul II Soul-tinged reworking", noting it as "big on import, stateside release sports the new remixes. Only misgiving is absence of fab original." Cash Box wrote that "this brainchild of Norman Cook revamps the old S.O.S. Band hit into a shoulderswaying, hip-swinging groove that never lets up." Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger noted "the latent cheekiness of the track – its lifts so flagrant, its components so random – gives it a warmth, a sense of reassurance that despite Layton's desperation everything in Beats International's world is going to be alright." Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report commented, "Chef Norman Cook from The Housemartins takes this 1983 SOS Band track, beats and mixes well, and what emerges is a fresh delicacy for now tastes. Charts #1 in England and there's no reason to doubt it'll have a real good run in the States, too." Music & Media described it as an "appealing mixture of house and reggae" and complimented "good vocals by Lindy and some tasteful blues harmonica."
"Dub Be Good to Me" was covered in 2002 by Faithless and Dido for the album NME & WarchildPresents 1 Love. Jack Peñate covered "Dub Be Good to Me" as a B-side to his re-released single "Second, Minute or Hour" in September 2007. Rapper Professor Green and Lily Allen released their version of the song, titled "Just Be Good to Green". British band The Ting Tings covered "Dub Be Good to Me" on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. British Urban duo MK1 performed the song during the judges' houses stage of the ninth series of The X Factor.
