Rock the Casbah

"Rock the Casbah" is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash, released in 1982 as the second single from their fifth album, Combat Rock. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US (their only top 10 single in that country) and, along with the track "Mustapha Dance", it also reached number eight on the dance chart. Recording "Rock the Casbah" was composed by the band's drummer Topper Headon, based on a piano part that he had been toying with. Finding himself in the studio without his three bandmates, Headon progressively taped the drum, piano and bass parts, recording the bulk of the song's musical instrumentation himself. This origin makes "Rock the Casbah" different from the majority of Clash songs, which tended to originate with music written by the Joe Strummer–Mick Jones songwriting partnership. Upon entering the studio to hear Headon's recording, the other Clash members were impressed with his creation, stating that they felt the instrumental track was essentially complete. From this point, relatively minor overdubs were added, such as guitars and percussion. However, Strummer was not impressed by the page of suggested lyrics that Headon gave him. According to Clash guitar technician Digby Cleaver, they were "a soppy set of lyrics about how much he missed his girlfriend". "Strummer just took one look at these words and said, 'How incredibly interesting!', screwed the piece of paper into a ball and chucked it backwards over his head."