DESMOND DEKKER Vinyl & CDs

Review: Desmond Dekker recorded some of his best known songs together with his backing group the Aces. Their single '007 (Shanty Town)' made him Jamaican music's first outernational superstar, reaching the 14th place in the UK charts. The Leslie Kong-produced Double Dekker was first issued in 1973 and consists of the best material Desmond recorded during his early years. In 1969 he scored a number-one hit with the legendary song Israelites. You'll hear how the Ska music from the mid-60s developed to the Rocksteady sound. This was 'Ska' or 'Blue Beat' - (or its new name for the slower tempo rocksteady) - and the lyrics come from the Calypso-Mento method of telling about current events in music. He was really at his prime from 1969 to 1971 and recorded classics such as 'It Mek' (1969) and 'You Can Get It If You Really Want' (1970), which you'll both find on this record. Even before Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff Jamaica already had their own international superstar, Desmond Dekker was his name.

Review: To mark what would have been Desmond Dekker's 80th birthday, Trojan Records is serving up a variety of celebratory releases. The King of Ska takes us back to the formative years of the Jamaican superstar's career between 1963-67, when he was an aspiring young singer signed to producer Leslie Kong's Beverley's Records imprint. Loosely chronologically arranged, disc one begins with Dekker's celebrated debut single, 'Honour Your Mother & Father', and continues to chart his efforts in the first couple of years of his career - both alongside unnamed studio bands and with the backing of The Cherry Pies and The Four Aces. On CD2, we hear a more confident Dekker belting out the singles that would turn him into an international star, including rude boy anthem - and his first UK top 50 smash - '007'.