Jamaican Doo-Wop, Rocking Steadily toward C-90dom

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So this is a thread for poking around the connections and overlaps between Jamaican music and U.S. 50s/60s vocal pop, doo-wop, and so on. Which would make it kind of a rocksteady and ska thread, I guess, but you can interpret that connection however you like -- I'm just interested in the cross-influencing and reflection between these things, especially as indicated by covers and standards.

So for C-90 purposes one might start with Anton Ellis, "Sh-Boom."

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 2 December 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

Alton Ellis, right?

Pat Kelly, "Queen & Minstrel"

There's a whole cd ---I'm So Proud-- of reggae artists' covers of Curtis Mayfield songs. Jamacains really latched onto him.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 2 December 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Yes, yes, Alton.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 2 December 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

Listening to Studio 100 Soul right now! Can't think of another place where that connection is more apparent. Leroy Sibbles 'Express Yourself'! Norma Fraser 'The First Cut is the Deepest'! Oh boy.

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 2 December 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

there's also this cd: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6845226&style=music&cart=289388454&BAB=E

― oops (Oops), Friday, 2 December 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

xpost - That is, Studio One, duh. We're all off to a good start.

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 2 December 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Lee Perry produced a bunch of versions of "Get A Job"

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 2 December 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Another great document of this is the Darker Than Blue comp

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 2 December 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

Although that's more concerned w/ soul and not '50s doo-wop, and come to think of it so is Studio One Soul.

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 2 December 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)

yeah I can think of a bunch of things that are jamaican takes on 60s/70s american soul, but not too familiar with doo wop influenced stuff. (or, more accurately, with the doo wop that was the influence.)

― oops (Oops), Friday, 2 December 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I'm thinking less of the soul side and more of the pop side -- not strictly doo-wop, necessarily, but that period of vocal pop, or something along those lines. (Which lines are blurry with soul, in the end.) I feel like there's a decent amount of rocksteady and ska that fits that bill, but I don't necessarily know what all of it is.

― nabiscothingy, Saturday, 3 December 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

Search: Heptones, Gaylads, Carlton & The Shoes, Melodeons, Jackie Opel, Ken Boothe...

there are definitely a few other great ones I'm forgetting, tho.

― ian, Saturday, 28 March 2009 15:54 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

revive, because jamaican doo-wop sounds sweeter, fresher, and more vital than its more famous u.s. counterpart.

listening to the gaylads now.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 12 July 2010 03:51 (fifteen years ago)

I always thought The Royals "Pick Up the Pieces" comp on pressure sounds displayed a kind of doo-wop influence.

― elephant rob, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:15 (fifteen years ago)

paragons!

― by another name (amateurist), Thursday, 15 July 2010 06:34 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, the paragons originally did the tide is high, right? great group.

― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 15 July 2010 11:27 (fifteen years ago)

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