It literally opened the floodgates of opportunity for numerous Jamaican artistes, and for the first time, placed Jamaica firmly on the international music map. 2 in America - the only ska recording to have done so. Millie Small may be considered a 'one-hit wonder', but that one hit - My Boy Lollipop - a remake of the relatively unknown, Barbie Gaye 1957 R&B recording, was perhaps the most important recording in Jamaica's music history.Ĭonsidered Jamaican, although it was cut in England, My Boy Lollipop sold over seven million copies, topped the charts in the UK and some European countries and reached No. The girl said, "Listen to me daddy, its getting too late". While I was dancing two tunes, started to make my date I was dancing to the music of Sir Coxson, The Downbeat, on the beach. He was perhaps, the first artiste to sing the praises of a particular Sound System in the recording On The Beach, in which he urged patrons to: Interestingly, on the Jamaican scene, Millie Small's first recording, titled Sugar Plum, was sung in duet with Gray, while he maintained a prodigious output with Please Let Me Go for Blackwell, Darling Patricia for Leslie Kong, and Millie Girl for Prince Buster. Owen Gray recorded several cuts in Jamaica before going via the migration route to the UK and making his contribution to the proliferation of Jamaican music there. Relocating to England in 1960, he found the Jamaican community in Brixton welcoming, as he became the first Jamaican artiste to break Jamaica's music internationally with a plethora of Jamaican-flavoured UK hits for the Melodisc and Blue Beat labels, some of which charted as far as Spain and Belgium. Of the batch of entertainers who migrated to the UK, Laurel Aitken was perhaps the first.īorn in Cuba in 1927 to a Jamaican father and a Cuban mother, he moved with his parents and siblings to Jamaica in 1938.Īitken began earning a living in his mid-teens, by singing and dancing in Kingston nightclubs and later doing calypsos for the Jamaica Tourist Board, as visitors alighted at Kingston Harbour.īetween 19, he recorded in Jamaica in the pre-ska shuffle mode for various producers, recordings like, Bartender, Brother David, Judgement Day, More Whisky, I Shall Not Remove, and Mighty Redeemer. Its flip side, Little Sheila, also created history when it became the first Jamaican recording to be distributed in England on Blackwell's Island label.īy 1962, Blackwell was back in England to continue the growth of his business, and even sold records from the back of his car, to the Jamaican community.
In 1960, he produced the Boogie/R&B influenced, Boogie In My Bones by Laurel Aitken, which became the first No.1 Jamaican hit record.
It was while he was in the jukebox business that he was brought into contact with the Jamaican music community and was soon introduced to the dancehall scene, where he met Owen Gray and Jackie Edwards and recorded them on his first record label named R&B. He skipped university to pursue a career in real estate and other businesses while in Jamaica. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters.īlackwell, considered the person most responsible for turning the world on to reggae music, was born in London in June 1937, but spent his childhood in Jamaica before returning to Britain to continue his education.