Build (song)
The Housemartins single

"Build" is a song released in November 1987 as the third single from the album The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death by British band the Housemartins. It reached No. 15 in the UK Singles Chart.
The lyrics were inspired by slum clearances and large-scale housebuilding in the north of England.
The song features drummer Dave Hemingway on vocals during the choruses, while usual singer Paul Heaton sings the verses and bridge.
Charts
Weekly charts
In media
The song became a big hit in Brazil due to its inclusion in the telenovela Bebê a Bordo as the theme song for main character Ana. The song also became well-known in Brazil because of the chorus "ba-ba-ba-ba build," which is often mistaken for "pa-pa-pa-pa papel".
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4986392. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987.
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This entry incorporates text from “Build (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.