Vinyl Odyssey: Jamaican Covers

Country, funk, soul and pop get the reggae/rocksteady treatment. As heard 2/19/2025.

This week, a favorite theme of mine (although I think this is the first time I’ve done a show fully devoted to it): Jamaican/Reggae/Rocksteady/Ska covers!

What exactly is the difference between Reggae and Rocksteady and Ska? I’m not going to pretend to have any expert knowledge on this, and I encourage you to do reading of your own so that the afficionados don’t attack me, but (very) roughly: they’re three distinct genres or phases of Jamaican popular music, beginning with Ska in the late-50s and early 60s, leading to Rocksteady in the mid-60s, and then eventually on to Reggae in the late 60s and into the 70s. Then onward to Dub, Roots, Lovers Rock and beyond! But that’s for another day. (Bluebeat is in there, too, but I’m not going to tackle that one.)

Musically (again very roughly) Ska tended to be faster and more upbeat (listen to Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop” from 1964, one of the first big Ska hits, or any track by the famous Skatalites), Rocksteady slowed things down and got a bit more soulful (listen to Hopeton Lewis’s “Take It Easy” from 1966), and Reggae slowed things down further and continued to emphasize the groove (listen to Toots & the Maytals’s “Do the Reggay” from 1968, one of the first Reggae songs and the first popular track to use the word “Reggae/Reggay,” although I’m also very partial to Dandy’s “Reggae In Your Jeggae”).

One thing each of these genres shared was their mixing of Jamaican musical traditions with American jazz, R&B, blues, and soul (and ultimately rock and pop). It’s a beautiful thing, the way musical styles and genres grow as artists try to imitate other artists and styles and, by bringing their own sensbilities and backgrounds and skills to the mix, end up creating something new. And, as the market for Jamaican music exploded in London, that back-and-forth would continue, with young British fans becoming obsessed with Ska and Rocksteady, leading to the eventual creation of “second wave” Ska in the UK, but that’s also for another day.

So, enjoy this little sampling of Jamaican artists interpreting non-Jamaican songs! I’ll definitely be doing this one again, as I didn’t even get to “Shaft” or “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” or “Let’s Get It On” or…

Listen on my Mixcloud or right here:

Also, although last time I said I was going to forgo Spotify playlists due to many of the songs I play not being on Spotify, I decided to make a playlist this time because I had a number of issues with the studio equipment this time that led to some of the tracks having worse audio quality than I would have hoped. A number of the (best) songs from the show aren’t on Spotifty, but you can listen to a partial playlist here:

The Songs

1. “Help Me Make It Through the Night” - Hopeton Lewis (00:00) (Originally: Kris Kristofferson) A fantastic record chock full of covers, including quite a few I didn’t have time for this week. This is one of many records I bought from one of my favorite record store’s in NYC—The Record Shop in Red Hook, Brooklyn—and one of many that I bought specifically because the owner, Bene Coopersmith, was playing it in the shop and I insisted that he let me buy it, on the spot. I can’t say enough good about The Record Shop except that I’ve seen few places like it in the world and that’s a pity. A combination of extremely well-curated vinyl alongside a barbershop and a community gathering space and, as far as I can tell, sometimes a performance space and gear-repair spot and mini-bookstore and virtually anything else you can imagine. There are many different kinds of record stores in the world, but if you had to roughly break them down into two groups it would be “Asshole” and “Not Asshole.” Bene is supremely Not Asshole and his shop is overflowing with the kind of love of music and people that this whole thing should be all about. Virtually every time I was in the shop he was playing something that changed my musical life (it was here hat I learned about Melvin Van Peebles, when he played “Eyes on the Rabbit,” another record I insisted he sell me, although I don’t remember if he aquiesced). Bene’s spot is also where I first began getting seriously into Jamaican vinyl, when he had a series of 12” Joe Gibbs singles that I snapped up. Generally, his shop always felt full of stuff that spoke to NYC specifically. I found countless great reggae, gospel, latin and more—stuff you don’t stumble across in Missoula, MT very often. If you live in NYC, go there! (Also, as for this song, how great is turning “take the ribbons from your hair” into “take the riddim from your hair!”)

2. “Don’t Let Me Down” - Marcia Griffiths (3:40) (Originally: The Beatles) Nothing I can say about this one except that it’s one of the great all-time covers and it’s one of those Jamaican recordings that absolutely explodes out of the mix. I don’t think you could recreate that drum sound in a million years.

3. “Live and Let Die” - Byron Lee & the Dragonaires (7:50) (Originally: Paul McCartney & Wings) I could have done an entire show of only Byron Lee tracks, he did more covers than I can count. A staple of early ska music, some say he coined the term!

4. “Ride Your Pony” - Dave & Ansell Collins (10:55) (Originally: Lee Dorsey/Betty Harris/The Meters/etc…) One of the big 60s hits from one of the greatest producers and songwriters of all time, Allen Toussaint. Written under the pseudonym Naomi Neville, his mother’s maiden name. I’ll have a lot more to say about Toussaint in the future.

5. “Everybody Plays the Fool” - The Chosen Few (14:20) (Originally: The Main Ingredient) Another great record that is chock full of killer covers!

6. “If I Were A Carpenter” - Ernest Wilson (17:45) (Originally: Tim Hardin/everyone else in the 60s) There are a million covers of this song and this is my favorite, easily.

7. “Louie, Louie” - Toots & the Maytals (20:30) (Originally: The Kingsmen) This fantastic album is really all about the title track, another of the all time great recordings, but the whole album is essential and this track features that insane filtered guitar or whatever it is in the last 1/3!

8. “Independent Anniversary Ska (I Should Have Known Better)” - Roland Alphonso & the Skatalites (25:00) (Originally: The Beatles) I could have also probably done an entire Jamaican Beatles covers show—someday!

9. “Son of a Preacher Man” - The Gaylettes (29:00) (Originally: Dusty Springfield) That bass! Suffocatingly groovy.

10. “My Sweet Lord” - Leroy Sibbles & The Brentford All-Stars (31:35) (Originally: George Harrison) I missed this on eBay once and then waited YEARS to find it again!

11. “Down By the River” - Ken Boothe (34:55) (Originally: Neil Young) An incredibly cool cover, defined by the scorching guitar parts, equal parts wah-wah/talkbox and overdrive, swirling around Ken Boothe’s peculiar, over-enunciated vocal style where it sounds like he’s wringing the life out of each word.

12. “My Prayer” - Jackie Opel (38:05) (Originally: The Platters) I became obsessed with this song after watching Twin Peaks: The Return (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t look it up) and this is probably my favorite cover of the many that exist. Opel is an amazing vocalist, and the insistent rat-a-tat drums are fantastic, but what really gives this cover its magic is the way that Opel (as is not uncommon in many foreign covers I’ve encountered) more or less ignores/paraphrases the lyrics. It’s a bit funny but its also quite affecting and, I think, touching. To love a song so deeply and to feel so confident singing it (and to sing it so well) while only having a passing-awareness of the words. Opel understands the truth of the song, which only has a bit to do with the lyrics.

13. “Rainy Night in Georgia” - Nicky Thomas (41:55) Originally: Brook Benton/Tony Joe White/many others) Super cool version of a cool song. And if you think I had my levels up too high—so did I! But I checked it and confirmed that it is just a super loud and compressed recording.

14. “Ode to Billie Joe” - Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (45:20) (Originally: Bobbie Gentry) There are also a million covers of this song and this is one of my favorites. Incredibly cool recording that makes the inexplicable but correct decision to bring in a monster synthesizer in the second half and include part of “A Hard Day’s Night!” (Sadly that YouTube recording is very poor, you should listen to the version in my show instead!)

15. “100 Pounds of Clay” - Roy Richards (48:33) (Originally: Gene McDaniels)

16. “Stand By Your Man” - Marlene Webber (52:28) (Originally: Tammy Wynette) One of a number of tracks I have courtesy of the “Tighten Up” compliation series that was released in the UK in the late 60s/early 70s, which collects a ton of the great Ska/Rocksteady/Reggae tracks that were popular at the time, many of them covers. Sadly, many of the copies I’ve come across were very well-loved and are thus quite beat up.

17. “Angle of the Morning” - Joya Landis (55:40) (Originally: Evie Sands/Merrillee Rush) The organ sounds like it’s being strangled. A+

18. “Law of the Land” - Matumbi (1:02:44) (Originally: The Temptations/The Undisputed Truth) We heard Matumbi, Dennis Bovell’s early group, on last week’s show covering Bob Dylan’s “The Man In Me” and now they’re back with this incredibly faithful (in terms of the strings) cover of this great psychedelic funk track. Features an unreal breakbeat in the last section that I’m shocked to learn hasn’t been sampled!

19. “You’re A Big Girl Now (Ver. 1)” - The Chosen Few (1:05:44) (Originally: The Stylistics) Another killer cover by The Chosen Few, with a falsetto to rival the original!

20. “Proud Mary” - Hopeton Lewis (1:09:05) (Originally: Creedence Clearwater Revival/everyone else in the 60s) This is the song that was playing in The Record Shop when I first heard this album and insisted on buying it.

21. “Eighteen With A Bullet” - Derrick Harriott (1:12:10) (Originally: Pete Wingfield) Sadly there’s a skip on my version of this but I had to do it anyway, as it’s just that good.

22. “You Won’t See Me” - Ernest Ranglin (1:15:30) (Originally: The Beatles) Where to start with this recording. It’s one of my favorite Beatles tracks and I’ve enjoyed most covers I’ve heard, but this one is special. That sound! The guitar tone, the reverb, the way the drums have that strange mechanical quality. It’s both hypnotic and soulful, truly dreamy when the voices come up out of the reverb ether. One of the things that is magic about recorded music is the way that it is able to create sonic spaces that don’t exist in real life, to create sounds rather than just capture them. This song exists in a space that only exists on this record and I feel like I could get lost in it for ages. Ranglin is also easily one of the most influential and prominent Jamaican musicians of this era and perhaps all time. Besides playing guitar on and arranging the original ska hit “My Boy Lollipop,” his guitar work is all over countless records, from ska to rocksteady to reggae to dub to whatever else he could get his hands on. He also composed music for the first James Bond movie, Dr. No!

23. “Wichita Lineman” - Dennis Brown (1:19:50) (Originally: Glen Campbell) Another of the great all-time songs and a great version.

24. "Tears On My Pillow” - Derrick Morgan (1:23:50) (Originally: Little Anthony and the Imperials) That drippy reverb guitar tone! I spent way too long trying to figure out who played that guitar (Ernest Ranglin??) but could only learn that there was an earlier recording of this track from 1963 (this one from 1968) but I couldn’t find that either, just different speeds of this recording. Mysteries abound!

25. “Sea of Love” - The Heptones (1:26:42) (Originally: Phil Phillips) OK, this one DOES feature Ernest Ranglin on guitar! (Probably a bunch of these tracks do tbh.) Another killer production, with great gurgly organ.

26. “Jet Plane” - Sonya Spence (1:29:38) (Originally: John Denver) A very sparse, odd arrangement — lacking any of the typical Jamaican up-beat emphasis — that totally captivates.

27. “I Will” - John Holt (1:33:10) (Originally: The Beatles) A very lush arrangement, maximally cheesed-out in a manner Sir Paul would surely approve of, anchored by the great John Holt, who in addition to being a member of one of the best Jamaican vocal groups, The Paragons, also has some fantastic album covers.

28. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” - Toots & the Maytals (1:36:50) (Originally: John Denver)

29. “I Shall Be Released” - The Heptones (1:40:05) (Originally: Bob Dylan) This 1977 recording is actually the second time The Heptones recorded this Dylan track, and comparing this version to their earlier recording from 1969 is a great example of the evolution of Jamaican music from the 60s into the 70s.

30. “Everybody’s Talking” - The Freedom Singers (1:44:47) (Originally: Harry Nilsson)

31. “Patches” - The Rudies (1:50:23) (Originally: Clarence Carter) Another cover that plays fast and loose with the lyrics, to great effect, in my opinion. Also, one of my favorite songs in its original form.

Alright that’s it for this week! Thanks for reading and listening—see you next week!