To give you an overlook of all the (different) releases of Musical Youth, I have tried to give as much information as I can give. Most of it is taken from my own collection, so correct me if I’m wrong. To explain how it works, this is the information I have put to every release that I have knowledge of this way:

Title
Release date
Catalogue number
Alternative catalogue number(s)
A: Title of the track (Writer(s)) Prod.: Producer’s Name time –as mentioned on label-
B: Title of the track (Writer(s)) Prod.: Producer’s Name time –as mentioned on label-
Additional information, some personal additions, facts, sleeve info, anything that seems important to me to put on the web adding some extra value to a discography.
Value: this is the maximum I would pay for an item like this (in Euro’s). This depends on the rarity of the records and of course only if they’re in very good shape. Lots of people selling these items might tell you they’re rare, which most of them aren’t! Especially “Dutchie” and “Youth” are very common items. Most other items aren’t worth as much as some sellers might want you to think, especially because I can’t imagine that there would be more than a few dozen Musical Youth collectors.

7”

Generals/Political
1981
021 Records; OTO 6
A: Generals (unknown) Prod.: Toney Owens
AA: Political (unknown) Prod.: Toney Owens
This was the first Musical Youth single to be released and has Freddie Waite (sr.) on vocals. The double A-sided single was recorded at Saltley Music Workshop, where the boys would practice many times and the proceeds of the single would go to the workshop.
Value: €10

Whatcha Talking ‘Bout
February 1984
MCA 259666
A: Whatcha Talking ‘Bout (Stevie Wonder) Prod.: Peter Collins 3:34
B: Strictly Vibes (Musical Youth) Prod.: Musical Youth 3:15
Not your average reggae tune, while the lyrics go “Whatcha talking ‘bout-you say you don’t like the reggae beat”… A song written by Dennis’ musical idol Stevie Wonder, a song he would record with Stevie some years later during his solo years. The flipside is the same as the one for “16”, is this why the catalogue number engraved in the single is ‘YOU7’?
Value: €4

Let’s Go To The Moon
1984
MCA 259249
A: Let’s Go To The Moon (Eddy Grant) Prod.: Eddy Grant 3:50
B: Jamming In The Classroom (Musical Youth) Prod.: Musical Youth/Freddie Waite 4:25
The last Musical Youth single, never released on any album, except on the compilation “Maximum Volume”. This was an expensive try of the record company to force another hit. The boys were sent off to Barbados to record this ‘new’ song with Eddy Grant who had written this ‘for Musical Youth’. Not really, it later seemed. Grant had already recorded the track some 15 years before, but nobody seemed to know, or care. Never made it to any chart, though it wasn’t that bad a song.
Value: €3

12”

Pass The Dutchie
MCA YOU(T) 1
600684 or MCA-13961
A: Pass The Dutchie (remixed by Peter Hammond) 6:05
B: (Please) Give Love A Chance 3:36
A very common 12”, though some sellers try to convince that this is a rare item. Don’t forget that this single (mostly 7”es) sold over 100.000 in the UK alone, and more than four million copies worldwide. There might be several (slightly) different sleeves and labels (I’ve got four different versions), but generally, it’s all the same, the music is exactly the same, so the differences only matter for real collectors and as far as I know, there’s only one in the world who’s that fanatic…
Value:€2

Youth Of Today
MCA YOUT 2
600734
A: Youth Of Today (Special 12” Mix by Peter Collins and Julian Mendelsohn) 5:28
B: Gone Straight (Engineered and Special 12” Mix by Peter Hammond) 5:22
Funny thing: the sleeve front mentions a “Special 12” Club Mix”, whereas the label leaves the ‘Club’ somewhere in nowhere land. The picture at the back of the sleeve looks to be in a suburban part of Birmingham. It could be, but the picture was shot inside and the background is a painting!
Value: €2

Rub ‘n’ Dub/Never Gonna Give You Up
MCA YOUT 3
600787
A: Rub ‘n’ Dub (Special Dub Mix by Paul “Groucho” Smykle) 6:30
B: Never Gonna Give You Up 6:28
Yep, this is a reverse version of the single, it seems. It seems, because one of my two copies has labels with “Never…” as an A-side and “Dub” as a B-side, but “Dub” is still mentioned as first track on the front and the back. Whatever. Another inside scoop on the picture on the back of the sleeve: this was taken in the photographer’s kitchen (same session as the front sleeve of the 7”)
Value: €3

Tell Me Why
MCA YOUT 5
A: Tell Me Why? (Special US Remix by Willie Morrison & Ian Guenther) 6:17
B: Reason (Extended Version)
600962
A: Tell Me Why? (Special US Remix by Willie Morrison & Ian Guenther) 6:17
B: Reason 6:50 / Heartbreaker (Special Dance Mix) 5:36
As you can see, two different versions of this 12” were pressed, the first one being the UK version and the second one (probably) the international version.
Value: €3

16
MCA YOUT 7
A: 16(Special 12” Mix by Peter Hammond)
B: Strictly Vibes (12” Mix by Musical Youth)
I’ve got this one in two versions, a picture sleeve and a label sleeve (WEA New Zealand), none of them mention playing time of the songs. The title track was written by Freddie Waite and Lamont Dozier, of Motown/The Corporation fame.
Value: €4

She’s Trouble
MCA YOUT 8
A: She’s Trouble (Special Extended Mix by Peter Collins) 7:45
B: Tell Jack (Extended Mix) 5:45
This is one single that I don’t own the 7” of, but I do own the 12”. If you listen to the track, it’s not hard to tell that the song was probably written for Michael Jackson, who recorded a version that’s nearly the same as the Musical Youth version.
Value: €4

Let’s Go To The Moon
MCA YOUT 9
A: Let’s Go To The Moon (Extended Version) 8:20
B: Jamming In The Classroom 4:30
I don’t think the cover really appealed to the MY fans. Maybe they had this cheap looking cover because the recording session cost too much? This track failed to chart and seems to be the reason why the group split up in 1985 eventually. It’s a nice tune, but I think I’d prefer the B-side.
Value: €4

Picture Discs

Never Gonna Give You Up
MCA YOUP 3
This is a picture disc with the same front as the picture sleeve 7” and the B-side is slightly different from the 7”. The B-side is purple, but seems to be a modified back of the 7” sleeve, since it has the catalogue number YOU 3 mentioned, while you can find YOUP 3B printed at the bottom.
Value: €3

007
MCA YOUP 6
This is the best picture disc that was released by MY, because it is a shaped disc, which really looks great. It actually isn’t a 7” anymore, because the full length of the disc is 29 centimeters, which is about 11 inches. The sound of this picture disc is good, actually, which surprised me. I won’t be playing this one again, though, because I like to keep these as good as I can.
Value: €4

16
MCA YOUP 7
I loved this single because of the great colours and the MY logo with the shade. I was also very impressed by the B-side “Strictly Vibes”, it became one of my MY favourites, because it shows the skills that the guys have. Junior’s drums are great, as well as Patrick’s bass, which are essential to this song, which is mostly instrumental.

LP

Albums

Only two full length studio albums were released, plus a bunch of compilations or cd’s that were supposed to be compilations. They are all mentioned here in the ‘Albums’ section.

CD

Anthology
1994
MCAD-22123
EAN: 076732212325
1 Pass The Dutchie 3:25 2 Heartbreaker 3:56 3 Blind Boy 3:49 4 Rockers 3:29 5 Youth Of Today 2:56 6 Young Generation 3:21 7 Mirror Mirror 2:38 8 Children Of Zion 3:05 9 Never Gonna Give You Up 3:06 10 Schoolgirl 3:26 11 Shanty Town (007) 3:25 12 She’s Trouble 3:08 13 Whatcha Talking ‘Bout 5:09 14 Incommunicado 3:24 15 No Strings 3:02 16 Tell Me Why 3:12 17 Sixteen 3:51 18 Yard Stylee 3:51 19 Air Taxi 3:54 20 Mash It The Youth Man, Mash It 4:20
This album was ‘compiled’ and released by One Way Records in 1994, the first of a few cd releases with only Musical Youth music. This isn’t exactly a compilation, as it is basically both LP’s on one cd, leaving out two tracks from “The Youth Of Today”: “Gone Straight” and “Rub ‘N‘ Dub”. It IS though, the most extensive collection of Musical Youth songs. It seems as though One Way Records just put both albums on one cd (leaving out the two tracks), which proves to be true if you compare the tracklistings of both albums (US releases). It would have been a true Anthology when it contained non-album singles like “Let’s Go To The Moon”, “Unconditional Love” and the TV-anthem “Jim’ll Fix It”.
Value: €20

The Best Of Musical Youth …Maximum Volume
1995
MCD 31691
131691-2
1 Pass The Dutchie (original 7” version) 2 Youth Of Today 3 Never Gonna Give You Up 4 Heartbreaker 5 Young Generation 6 007 7 Unconditional Love 8 Rockers 9 Tell Me Why 10 Sixteen 11 Whatcha Talking ‘Bout 12 Let’s Go To The Moon 13 Pass The Dutchie (Philip Leo Mix)
If this compilation was called ‘Anthology’, it would have been justified, at least more than the ‘Anthology’ cd that was released in 1994. It’s got almost all the singles, except for “She’s Trouble”, plus some extra tracks (“Rockers” was a B-side, which would justify including this track, I just can’t figure out why “Young Generation” is on this disc), plus they’re almost in chronological order. It also includes the Philip Leo remix of “Pass The Dutchie”, which most fans will find redundant.
Value: €15

The Best Of Musical Youth (20th Century Masters-The Millennium Collection)
2004
0249807410
1 Pass The Dutchie (original 7” version) 2 Youth Of Today 3 Never Gonna Give You Up 4 Heartbreaker 5 Young Generation 6 007 7 Unconditional Love 8 Rockers 9 Tell Me Why 10 Sixteen 11 Whatcha Talking ‘Bout 12 Let’s Go To The Moon
As part of the ‘20th Century Masters-The Millennium Collection’, this disc was released by Universal in 2004. It’s a totally redundant CD, as it is practically the same as the ‘Maximum Volume’ compilation, just leaving out the “Pass The Dutchie” remix and with different artwork. This is one for those who don’t own any other Musical Youth CD’s or for the hardcore collectors that want their collection totally complete (like this guy here).
Value: €10