In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs" at number 19, for "Lacing ska and reggae with the amphetamine edge of new wave". Mark Beaumont praised the song and its "brooding evocation of Thatcher’s wasteland Britain". [25]

Kelly, Jon (2011) " The Specials: How Ghost Town defined an era", BBC, 17 June 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2015 Matrix / Runout (Side A, stamped / etched, variant 1): CHR TT 5003 A // 3 ▽ E C R S TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN 1 1 1 3 CHR TT - 5003 A 3 √ANOS Matrix / Runout (Side A, stamped / etched, variant 2): CHR TT 5003 A // 3 ▽ E C R S TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN 1 1 5 CHR-TT 5003A3 √ANOS Barton, Laura (5 May 2009). "Barton's Britain: Coventry". The Guardian G2 Magazine. London, England. p.11 . Retrieved 5 September 2013. Top Selling Albums of 1980 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand . Retrieved 29 January 2022.a b c d Petridis, Alexis (8 March 2002). "Ska for the madding crowd". The Guardian. London, England . Retrieved 5 September 2013. The only reasonable explanation is that they were obviously abducted by aliens for that entire year, during which they were likely replaced with clonedroids, which as everybody knows, can only mimic the more superficial human attributes. Talent and skill, not so much, as is quite apparent here in this case. Ghost Town" is a song by the British two-tone band the Specials, released on 12 June 1981. [2] The song spent three weeks at number one and 11 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. a b c d Montgomery, Hugh; Bignell, Paul; Higgins, Mike (3 July 2011). "Ghost Town: The song that defined an era turns 30". The Independent. London, England: Independent Print Ltd . Retrieved 5 September 2013.

The label started things off with the classic ‘Gangsters’ shortly followed by Madness’ ‘The Prince’ (a tribute to Prince Buster and the Jamaican Ska scene in general) and The Selecters’ ‘On My Radio’ Other classics which followed included ‘Too Much Too Young’ and The most famous 2 Tone release of them all; ‘Ghost Town’. Despite popular belief the single Ghost Town was not criticism of Racial tension on a national scale; mainly a broadside at the thuggery that existed within Coventry. Infact many of the Specials songs were about life in Coventry. 'Concrete Jungle', 'Dawning Of A New Era', 'Stereotypes' etc. The tour for the group's More Specials album in late 1980 had been a fraught experience: already tired from a long touring schedule and with several band members at odds with keyboardist and band leader Jerry Dammers over his decision to incorporate " muzak" keyboard sounds on the album, several of the gigs descended into audience violence. As they travelled around the country the band witnessed sights that summed up the depressed mood of a country gripped by recession. In 2002 Dammers told The Guardian, "You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down... We could actually see it by touring around. You could see that frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong." [4]Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). Australian Chart Book. p.286. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. a b Panter, Horace (2008). Ska'd for Life. London, England: Pan Books. p.268. ISBN 978-0-330-44073-8. Linehan, Graham; Mathews, Arthur. Father Ted DVD Commentaries (Podcast). United Kingdom: Channel 4 . Retrieved 30 December 2013. Duran Duran Announces New Album, 'Danse Macabre' ". Spin. 30 August 2023 . Retrieved 30 August 2023.

In March 1981, Jerry Dammers heard the reggae song "At the Club" by actor and singer Victor Romero Evans played on Roundtable, the singles review show on BBC Radio 1. Fascinated by the record's sound, Dammers telephoned the song's co-writer and producer John Collins a few days later, although as Dammers first phone call was in the middle of the night, Collins initially took it to be a joke. [12] [13] Following further conversations with Dammers, Collins travelled up from his home in London to meet the Specials at their rehearsal studio and agreed to produce their new single.In a retrospective review, AllMusic described the record as "a perfect moment in time captured on vinyl forever... It was an utter revelation—except for anyone who had seen the band on-stage, for the album was at its core a studio recording of their live set, and at times even masquerades as a gig". It felt the album captured the feeling of "Britain in late 1979, an unhappy island about to explode", and that "The Specials managed to distill all the anger, disenchantment, and bitterness of the day straight into their music". [3] In 2008, BBC Music agreed that the economic and political conditions of the day had heightened the record's impact, saying, "To understand the impact of this spearhead of the ska revival on early Thatcherite Britain you have to imagine something so left field and yet so apt occurring today. It was as if depression-era dustbowl ballads suddenly became hip again in this era of global economic meltdown. Hardly anyone would have predicted that a musical form so tied to its Afro-Caribbean heritage (as well as its less cool skinhead connections) could, almost overnight, become the trendiest thing across the nation". It concluded that The Specials "was a classic example of a band making an almost perfect first album, acting as both a mission statement (the rise of right wing groups opposed by the message of Two Tone equality) and as an alternative way to have fun without having to pogo or spit... The Specials remains a snapshot of a bleaker time, and a wrily comical antidote to political and cultural indifference anywhere". [16] However, Mojo 's David Hutcheon, reviewing the reissue, felt that " Specials doesn't feel quite as exciting as it did 23 years ago". [17]

Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, New South Wales, Australia: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 978-0-646-11917-5. Jones, Chris (10 October 2008). "The Specials The Specials Review". BBC Music . Retrieved 1 May 2012. In December 2021, a commemorative plaque was affixed to the house where the former Woodbine Street recording studio was located. The plaque mentions "Ghost Town" was recorded there. [24] Jo-Ann Greene. "Ghost Town - The Specials | Listen, Appearances, Song Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 29 March 2014.Petridis, Alexis (January 2002). "Please Look After This Band". Mojo. No.98. London, England: EMAP. pp.72–82. Christgau, Robert (1990). "The Specials: The Specials". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X . Retrieved 1 April 2015. I don't know what could've possibly happened to this band in just one year but the difference between their fantastic first, timeless self-titled album, and this massive waste of vinyl (which sounds like an '80s Las Vegas airport lounge act doing their most earnest Specials imitation) is so vast they really could've been recorded by two different groups.