Paul Simon took a new direction for his second solo album, travelling to Jamaica to record Mother And Child Reunion with some of Kingston’s top reggae musicians. (more…)

Delroy Wilson was the Cool Operator immortalised by The Clash. Here’s the song that earned him the nickname. (more…)

U-Roy is one of the great toasters of Jamaican music, prefiguring the rappers who came along more than 20 years later. Here’s The Originator teaming up with John Holt. (more…)

Bob and Marcia took Nina Simone’s prototype Black Lives Matter anthem to the top five of the UK charts in April 1970. It’s just as relevant 50 years later. (more…)

Skinhead favourite Liquidator, now synonymous with football, started life as a reggae instrumental by Harry J Allstars, becoming a top ten hit in 1969.
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Count Matchuki was the original deejay. The founding father of toasting – and, by extension, the forefather of rap. (more…)

Talk about being ahead of your time – this anthem was released more than 50 years ago and has never been more relevant.

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Alton Ellis sings the original rocksteady version of the song that grew into multiple hits for artists from Althea & Donna to Sean Paul, way back in 1967. (more…)

Another rocksteady classic from Studio One. Dawn Penn was only 15 when she recorded this in 1967 – and in her 40s when it became a UK hit (as No, No, No) in 1994. (more…)

This is one of the signature songs of the Rocksteady era – the brief bridging period in the mid-Sixties between the bouncy urgency of Ska and the laid-back drum’n’bass grooves and conscious lyrics of Reggae. (more…)