Songfacts®:

• This was originally recorded by the Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster as the B-side of his 1967 single "Al Capone." Having recorded the Prince Buster tribute tune "The Prince" for their debut single, Madness covered "One Step Beyond" as their follow-up. The Nutty Boys even named themselves after a Buster song, "Madness."
• While Buster's original version was in the main instrumental, apart from the song title being shouted for a few times, Madness' rendition features a spoken intro by the band's MC, Chas Smith.
• In this song's music video the band unveiled their Nutty Train dance. The live performance was shot at the North London pub, The Hope & Anchor.
• Frontman Suggs recalled to The Daily Mirror September 18, 2009: "We used to play the Hawaii 5-0 theme as a novelty cover version to start our shows. When we got bored we did this track instead, but the original recording was only 45 seconds long. We didn't even think it would get on the album. Our record company boss heard it and got our producers to loop it. We still start every gig with it. We've tried other songs but that's the one we always come back to. Cathal's introduction is a clarion call."
• Many Americans heard this song for the first time when MTV went on the air in 1981. They didn't have many videos to choose from, and the quirky Madness clip was one of the best in their library. Madness landed their biggest American hit in 1983 when MTV airplay pushed "Our House" to #7.
• Madness recorded versions of the song "One Step Beyond" in multiple languages. They laid down the Spanish version, titled "Un Paso Adelante," on June 30, 1980, at Eden Studios with Chas Smash singing the vocals. The band recorded the Spanish version because many popular English songs were being covered by Spanish artist Luis Cobos, and they wanted to be the first to do it.
  
  Madness used the Italian version, "Un Passo Avanti," to open the Italian leg of their world tour in October 1980.
• When Madness performed this song at their August 1992 Madstock! reunion concert, it caused a minor earthquake. As they performed "One Step Beyond," the 37,000-strong crowd jumped up and down in unison, causing nearby tower blocks to shake perceptibly and balconies and windows to crack. According to lead singer Suggs, it was "something to go on the CV."