DanceCrasher

My Number One – The Paragons (Paragons Production)

Back at number 48 in the list was Memories By The Score by the Paragons. My Number One was on the flip side of this on it’s original release on Supertone, and on Island in the UK. For my money is an even better tune, how can two tunes back to back be so great? There was only one other issue on Supertone, this was another stunning double sider; Man Next Door/Left With A Broken Heart.

My Number One is on the Westside CD; John Holt – Memories By The Score.

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Chatty Chatty AKA Glendevon Special – Junior Soul (Derrick Harriott Production)
A second side from Junior Soul AKA Junior Murvin, real name Junior Murvin Smith, in the top 100 (see also Miss Cushie at number 78). Murvin cut something less than a dozen sides in the latter part of the 60′s, these recordings were made for two producers, Sonia Pottinger, and Derrick Harriot who released this tune. It was issued on a blank label pre-release only in Jamaica and on one of the earliest releases on the Big Shot label in the UK.

Glendevon is an area of Montego Bay but it’s nowhere near the old railway line so the “special” reference probably relates to another form of transport?

Glendevon Special is available on the Jamaican Gold CD – From Chariot’s Vault: 16 Rock Steady Hits, Vol. 1. This CD is deleted but should still be available from some sellers.

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Afred Hitchcock – Bobby Ellis And The Crystalites (Derrick Harriott Production)

Yet more from Derrick Harriott, this time an instrumental. It’s hard to top a rocksteady instrumental with Derrick Harriott in the producers chair, and with Bobby Ellis at the fore with a wonderfully mournful horns lead you realy can’t go wrong…this is sublime stuff.

Bobby Ellis, a product of the Alpha Boys School, played with the Mighty Vikings in the early 60′s. This connection with Derrick Harriott (the groups singer) and the band’s leader Desmond Miles means he must have been an obvious choice when Harriott was looking for session players for the Desmond Miles Seven and/or The Crystalites in the rocksteady era.

Alfred Hitchcock was re-released on the Heartbeat CD Riding the Derrick Harriott – Musical Chariot (which was re-issued as Reggae’s Greatest Hits Volume 5).

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Cantelope Rock – Jo Jo Bennett And The Fugitives (Jo Jo Bennett Production)

There is something about Cantelope Rock that gets right under your skin, even people who don’t know or like Jamaican music will tap their feet to this.

Cantelope Rock is a version of Herbie Hancock’s jazz classic Canteloupe Island written in 1964, though the original Jamaican label gives the writers credit to Hugh Masekela who also recorded the tune in the mid 60′s. Obviously Jo Jo Bennett’s masterful horns lead is the main event here but there is also a great piano line running through this, the occasional vocal call dropped in to the mix also helps build to the crescendo without ever being over done.

Cantelope Rock was originally issued on the Fugitive label in Jamaica and on Doctor Bird in the UK. It is currently available on seven inch vinyl on the Moodisc label (with an added intro).

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Message Of Old – Joe Higgs & Ken Boothe (Studio One Production)

Ken Boothe is a giant of Jamaican music and one of it’s greatest ever voices though on this tune it’s hard not to think that it’s Joe Higgs who carries it. Higgs has a pedigree in the Jamaican music industry that is almost second to none, alongside Roy Wilson in the duo Higgs And Wilson he was one of the first hit makers on the island and famously went on to tutor Bob Marley as well as having significant success in the 70′s as a solo artist.

Message Of Old has something of a late ska sound due to the horns on the off beat but it has a subtlety and sophistication that is pure rocksteady. Another Studio One masterpiece.

Message Of Old was incorrectly credited to Dudley Sibley on the original UK issue on Coxsone. The original Jamacian issue came on a blank though there may have been a labelled issue on Coxsone as well(?). It is currently available of Soul Jazz’s Studio One Roots Volume 2.

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Sounds And Pressure – Hopeton Lewis (Sam Mitchell and Keith Scott production)

Perhaps the biggest Merritone rocksteady tune of them all and certainly one of Hopeton Lewis’s greatest records. This was recorded in 1966 at Federal studio’s in a session financed by the Khouri brothers (who owned the studio) but run by Keith Scott and Sam Mitchell. Scott explained the circumstances of the session where this was recorded in an interview published in the Beat magazine in 1997. He and Sam Mitchell met Hopeton at a youth club they ran in Vineyard Town, Kingston. They recorded around six Hopeton tunes at the session alongside tracks by the Ethiopians and the Renegades. There are two piano’s on the recording, Leslie Butler playing lead and Gladstone Anderson.

Sounds And Pressure was originally issued on the Merritone label in Jamaica and on Blue Beat in the UK (the Blue Beat issue incorrectly credited Prince Buster as the artist and producer), it is currently available on the Trojan CD Sounds & Pressure: Mod Reggae.

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This is a work in progress, the remaining numbers in the countdown will be added in the coming weeks.