Sandinista!  by The Clash

A few months after the double album London Calling, The Clash entered the studio and returned discographically with the triple (!) album Sandinista! at the end of 1980. The album is a highly experimental recording attempt for the most part. It comprises thirty-six compositions that musically move between reggae, dub, punk, funk, disco, rockabilly, rhythm 'n' blues, rock, and jazz. Generally, The Clash seem to have bet with themselves that they can succeed in any genre of pop & rock music.

The fourth studio album by The Clash was named Sandinista! as a tribute to the left-wing ideological group of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who at that time were in the spotlight due to their armed struggle against Western interventions in their country. This was when Margaret Thatcher, as Prime Minister of Great Britain, had proposed banning even the use of the word Sandinista. So Joe Strummer and his band filled all the record store windows with the name of this left-socialist organization as a reaction to Thatcher.

In order for their record company, CBS, to agree to release this triple album and take the financial risk of publishing it, they forced the band to sign an agreement that limited their earnings to 50% of what their contract stipulated for the first 200,000 copies the album would sell. Sandinista! had good commercial appeal, selling 500,000 copies in the U.S., while in Britain its sales reached 60,000.