Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I Wanna Love - The Jiving Juniors, Duke Reid's Group
2. Drinkin' Whiskey - Laurel Aitken
3. Pleading for Mercy - The Blues Busters, Luther Williams "Wee Wee" & His Orchestra
4. Japanese Girl - Lloyd Clarke
5. Nobody Else - Owen Gray, The Jets
6. I Won't Cry - Derrick Harriott
7. I Don't Want to Cry - Hersang & His Combo, Jimmy James
8. What Makes Honey - Duke Reid's Group
9. My Heart's Desire - The Jiving Juniors, Duke Reid's Group
10. Low Down Dirty Girl - Laurel Aitken
11. Worried Over You - Keith & Enid, Trenton Spence & His Group
12. Continental Shuffle - Matador All Stars, Rico
13. Mash It!, Pt. 1/Mash It!, Pt. 2 - Owen Gray
14. Oh My! - Derrick Morgan, Duke Reid's Group
15. Walking Down King Street - Theophilus Beckford, Sir Dee's Group
16. 'Til the End of Time - Chuck & Dobby, Duke Reid's Group
17. Album of Memory - Mellowlarks, Kenneth Richards & His Band

Disc 2:

1. Judgement Day - Laurel Aitken, Ken Richards & Harmonisers
2. Paranpinto Boogie - Lloyd Clarke, Duke Reid's Group
3. Lollipop Girl - The Jiving Juniors, Duke Reid's Group
4. Bridgeview Shuffle - Roland Alphonso, Matador All Stars
5. Oh My Love - Derrick & Patsy
6. Jenny Lee - Owen Gray
7. Lost My Baby - The Blues Busters
8. Tonight and Evermore - Cosmo & Dennis
9. Hey Diddle Diddle - Kent Brown, Sir Dee's Group
10. Now I Know the Reason - Lloyd Clarke, Smithie's Sextet
11. Honey Girl - Laurel Aitken
12. Magic - Duke Reid's All Stars, Rico
13. I Love You - The Jiving Juniors, Duke Reid's Group
14. Early One Morning - The Blues Busters, Luther "Wee Wee" Williams
15. Wasp - The Bubbles
16. Come on Baby - Sonny Bradshaw Quartet, Owen Gray

Disc 3:

1. I Need Some Loving - The Blues Busters, Luther Williams "Wee Wee" & His Orchestra
2. Rosabel - Drumbago, Jazz Beat, Magic Notes
3. Let the Good Times Roll - Derrick & Patsy, Drumbago & His Harmonisers
4. When It's Spring - Sonny Bradshaw Orchestra, Keith & Enid
5. Midnight Track - Owen Gray
6. Yea, Yea Baby - Laurel Aitken, Kenneth Richards & His Harmonisers
7. Dearest Beverley - Jimmy Cliff
8. Pocket Money - Mossman & Zeddse, Sir Dee's Group
9. You're a Cheat - Lloyd Clarke, Smithie's Sextet
10. Dearest Darling - The Jiving Juniors, Duke Reid's Group
11. My Happy Home - Hersang & His Combo, Roy & Patsy
12. Over and Over - Drumbago All Stars, Shenley Duffus
13. Blues from the Hills - Reco Rodriquez & His Blues Band
14. Rocking in My Feet - Owen Gray, The Jets
15. Duke's Cookie's - Duke Reid's All Stars, Rico
16. Little Vilma - The Blues Busters, Luther Williams "Wee Wee" & His Orchestra
17. (Grandfather's) Clock - Sir Dee's Group

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #283305 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-22
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .29 pounds

Album Description
Until now, this hugely important & influential musical style has been largely ignored by record companies & music historians alike, but this, the latest in Trojan's popular 3 CD box set series, aims to redress the balance by featuring 50 of the finest examples of the genre, performed by some of the most celebrated performers from the era. Undoubtedly, the most definite collection of Jamaican R&B ever gathered on one package, the set will not only appeal to fans of its natural off-spring, Ska, but also attract devotees of its American counterpart. Digibox. 2002.

Customer Reviews

Valuable collection
If you have an interest in Jamaican musical forms such as ska, blue beat and reggae, you are bound to be intrigued by this collection of its antecedents. In the 1950s, Jamaican popular entertainment was largely driven by the mobile sound systems which pumped out American R&B records, discovered from the American radio stations that were picked up in Jamaica, notably those from Louisiana, to a dance-hungry public.
Examples of the sort of records played can be found on Stateside's Original Jamaican Sound System and But Officer! compilations.
By 1958, American tastes were changing and it was harder to find the sorts of releases that the Jamaican audiences required. The response was to herd up some local musicians in a studio and produce some recordings for exclusive sound system play, as at this time few Jamaicans owned record players. Duke Reid was probably the first to do this, quickly rivalled by Sir Coxsone Dodd, Prince Buster, DE Dunkley, Simeon Smith and others, who mostly drew from the same pool of top-notch musicians, many of them veterans of the dance and jazz bands of the forties and fifties, eventually fronted by a new breed of vocalists: Laurel Aitken, Derrick Morgan, Owen Gray, Prince Buster.
Perhaps surprisingly, it seems that from the start the material they performed was home grown, though some of the songs bear close resemblances to existing songs such as Flip Flop And Fly and Let The Good Times Roll. Compiler Laurence Cane-Honeysett has rounded up a representative selection, many of which appear on CD for the first time. As Mike Atherton says in his extensive and valuable sleeve notes, "some are seeing their first-ever re-issue 40 years after they were recorded, and a few weren't released in Britain at all."
These exemplary recordings clearly show how ska came into being by 1962, in the first flush of Jamaican independence, and more importantly make a great listen in their own right