The Ska Albums That Defined Jamaica’s Music Revolution (1963-70)

A former member of Coxsone Dodd’s Downbeat Sound System team, in the early 1960s Cecil Campbell traveled to the U.S. to buy the hottest R&B singles for his new sound system, Voice of the People. When his travel visa was refused, Campbell was undeterred. Changing his name to Prince Buster, and falling in step with the developing ska style Dodd and Reid were working on, he decided to make his version. The result was Prince Buster’s debut album, I Feel The Spirit. 

Released on Campbell’s Buster Wild Bells label, the record created a lasting blueprint for Jamaican ska. Here was a living illustration of how infectious the ska sound could be, and how innovative Jamaican producers and musicians were at the time. A huge success in Jamaica, the album became the first Jamaican ska album to secure a release outside the country after it was picked up by U.K. label Blue Beat Records.

Furthermore, I Feel The Spirit inspired the U.K. ska band, Madness, more than fifteen years later. Buster’s album track “Madness” gave the band their name, and Madness’ cover version of the track appeared on their 1979 debut album, One Step Beyond, as did The Prince, their tribute to Prince Buster.

After Prince Buster opened the international door to ska, Millie Small barged straight through it. It’s hard to overstate the impact of the “My Boy Lollipop” single. Originally titled “My Girl Lollypop” and a 1950s hit for US doo-wop group, the Cadillacs, London-based producer and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell asked Millie Small to come up with her take after discovering the Jamaican 17-year-old singer on a fact-finding mission to the country. 

“My Boy Lollipop” became a global hit, introducing audiences to the power of ska in the process. Produced by Jamaican guitar virtuoso, Ernest Ranglin, the My Boy Lollipop album that followed swerved accusations of a cynical cash-in by brimming with the same exuberance and vivacity as the single. The album features Millie singing two original tracks and ten cover versions, including a suitably energetic take on the Jamaican folk song, “Tom Hark,” as covered by British ska-punk band the Piranhas in 1980.

Listening to Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert’s vocal style, it comes as no surprise that his first musical experiences came when he was a member of his local church choir. Here was a singer who could match the power of American R&B big hitters like Fats Domino and Big Joe Turner while adding passionate gospel inflections. Toots was just 19 years old when his vocal trio the Maytals released their debut album, Never Grow Old. It marked the beginning of a memorable career for the man. 

Essentially a compilation of the singles the Maytals had released to date – including six Jamaican number-one chart hits – Coxsone Dodd (who co-wrote most of the tracks with Hibbert) produced the album and put it out on his Studio One label. Instrumental backing on the album sessions came from Dodd’s house band, the Skatalites. The partnership was short-lived, though. The Maytals fell out with the producer over financial compensation for their work later, and Prince Buster took over production duties on the group’s next run of hits.

Laurel Aitken is known as The Godfather of Ska for good reason. By 1965, the singles he had released in Jamaica and the UK had garnered a considerable following on both sides of the Atlantic, with his debut album, 1965’s The Original Cool Jamaican Ska, underlining his position as a ska trailblazer. That set was more of a collection of his hits from 1960 until 1964, and Ska With Laurel (released the same year) follows the same format, pulling together more singles from Aitken’s indefatigable output. 

Album opener “Street of Glory” begins with a decidedly shaky harmonica intro before launching into a stomping, captivating, offbeat arrangement as Aitken comes over like a soul-driven street preacher, and “Hallelujah Train” and “It’s Coming Down” carry on in the same spiritual vein. Before converting to ska, Aitken had been a mento singer and the “Woman Is Sweeter Than Man” track wears its mento influence proudly.

Joseph Jordan, another artist who made the short hop from calypso to ska, cut his teeth in the late 1950s, working as a vocalist with pianist Theophilus Beckford and Ernest Ranglin under his Lord Tanamo stage name. In the early 1960s, ska trombonist Don Drummond recruited Jordan for his band, the Skatalites. The Trojan label’s 1993 collection, In The Mood For Ska, documents the tracks they made together. 

Produced by Lindon Pottinger (husband of reggae’s first female producer, Sonia Pottinger) and released on his Gaydisc imprint in 1965, Festival Jump-Up showcased Tanamo in full entertainer mode, leaping around his lyrics like ska’s version of Cab Calloway. Tanamo’s grounding in Jamaican folk music shines through as he relates cheeky tales about relationships and day-to-day life in Kingston.

Producer Leslie Kong first spotted the Aces in the early 1960s. Born Desmond Dacres, Dekker was already making a name for himself as a ska singer, and Kong suggested the group join Dekker in the recording studio. The resulting session included “007 (Shanty Town),” a celebration of cool that became an anthem for Jamaican rude boys, the youths born in the country’s poorer districts. 

The track went worldwide and was the first Jamaican song to reach the UK Top 20 charts. Released on the Doctor Bird label in 1967, the 007 (Shanty Town) album following the single featured more rude boy anthems. Two years later, Dekker and Kong would collaborate again on “Israelites,” one of the best-known songs in Jamaican music history.

The Skatalites were an extraordinary collective of musicians. Not only did they feature ska superstars saxophonists Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, and keyboard player Jackie Mittoo in their early lineup — they also narrated the development of the early ska style. A backer from day one, Coxsone Dodd furnished them with equipment before employing them as the Studio One label house band.  

Alphonso, Drummond, and McCook were trained jazz musicians, so they knew the importance of keeping their solos tight and interesting. Thus, Ska Authentic is a musically phenomenal debut, an album of Dodd-produced instrumental ska. The band split up in 1965, with various members going on to solo careers or joining the Supersonics and the Soul Vendors before eventually reuniting in 1974. The Skatalite’s most famous track – their version of the theme music for the 1961 movie The Guns of Navarone – was recorded just before the breakup. 

The Pioneers had gone through various line-ups during the 1960s, with singer Sydney Crooks being the sole constant. Disillusioned by the music business, by 1967, Crooks had dropped into semi-retirement, and it took producer Joe Gibbs to persuade him to put together a new version of the Pioneers. Crooks agreed, and the new trio recorded the iconic “Long Shot (Kick De Bucket)” single in 1968 at Gibbs’ Kingston studio. 

The track was the follow-up song to “Long Shot,” written by Lee “Scratch” Perry, and the “long shot” in question was a racehorse that eventually died during a race at Jamaica’s Caymanas Park racecourse. Ska was on a roll by now, and “Long Shot (Kick De Bucket)” became another smash hit, reaching the charts worldwide. Released on the Beverley Records imprint (and later picked up by Trojan), the Pioneers’ Long Shot album that flowed added to Leslie Kong’s lengthening list of production triumphs.

Born in Cuba, Rico Rodriguez‘s family moved to Jamaica, and he relocated from there to London in 1961. During his Jamaican upbringing, Rodriguez fell in with the music scene and studied trombone with Don Drummond. Later, now a talented musician, in London, Rodriguez met the Trojan label’s in-house producer, Robert Thompson, who introduced him to the Rudies. A new partnership was born.

The Rudies provided backing for Rodriguez‘s playing, and Thompson handled production for Blow Your Horn. Rodriguez’s playing on the record signaled a move from ska to the developing rocksteady sound — an evolution that was taking place in the Jamaican music community at large. Although primarily an instrumental record, ska figurehead Dandy Livingston provides vocals on “The Lion, Doctor Sure Shot” and a version of Dan Penn’s R&B classic, “I’m Your Puppet.” Rodriguez didn’t abandon ska altogether, though. As his career continued, he played with the British 1980s ska revival (also known as two-tone) band the Specials.  

By the end of the ’60s, singer Derrick Morgan had already recorded tracks for pivotal ska producers Duke Reid and Leslie Kong. Yet another Leslie Kong production, the artwork for Morgan’s 1962 debut album, Forward March!, provided a template for ska’s rude boy look, as well as working as a landmark set in the genre’s history. 

Released seven years on, Morgan’s “Moon Hop” single, recorded for the Pama label during a visit to London and released in 1969, became an instant rude boy classic. All the ska ingredients were in place as Morgan sang about a dance called the “Moon Hop” (in tribute to the Apollo 11 moon landing) over an easy skanking rhythm. The album that followed is a further step in ska’s evolution. While tracks like “Moon Hop” and “Fat Man” are firmly in the ska camp, “I’m the Ruler” has the slower, more bass-driven characteristics of rocksteady.