THEM A LOVA TOO: JAMAICAN COVER SONGS

Joe's "Tide is High" post reminded me of a long forgotten Jamaican covers mix I'd been working on. Mostly rocksteady and early reggae.




The Wailers - I Made a Mistake



The Impressions - I Made a Mistake




Hortense Ellis - My Last Date



Skeeter Davis - My Last Date (With You)




Phyllis Dillon - Make Me Yours



Bettye Swann - Make Me Yours



Ann Peebles - Make Me Yours




Ken Parker - How Strong



Otis Redding - That's How Strong My Love Is




Ken Parker & Dorothy Russell - Sincerely



Moonglows - Sincerely

Ken Parker mentions "Sincerely" in an interview at reggae-vibes.com:

Q: [Both you and Phyllis Dillon] were contemporaries at Treasure Isle in the sixties. Did you work together there?

A: Yeah, that was in the early days, that's the early days. I think if I am not mistaken, one of the tracks that I have done on Treasure Isle, I dunno if she was the one who did the backing or if we actually did a song together. I think she was the one who did 'Sincerely', but I'm not too sure (sings the chorus).

Q: I think that was credited to one 'Dorothy Russell', whoever that was.

A: Oh, OK.

Q: Never heard that name before though, it could be her maiden name for all I know - or a name Duke made up to get the publishing, not unlikely.

A: Yeah, yeah. That song that they... actually it was her song, but she couldn't do the high note and couldn't do the changes according to how the song went, so Duke asked me to sing along with her to give her ideas in how to sing the song. But afterwards she just included me in, y'know, the singin' of that song, so that's why actually that track was not originally my track. But it was a track that Duke had liked, so it's just that I start singin' the part for her and then the rest of the song is history.

Also, I was reading Carl Wilson's book on Céline Dion last night and have to share this excerpt. It's from a chapter about Dion's worldwide appeal and deft international marketing. Jamaican-American music critic Garnette Codogan explains the Jamaican roughneck affection for Dion:

[I remember] always hearing Céline Dion blasting at high volume whenever I passed through volatile and dangerous neighborhoods, so much that it became a cue to me to walk, run or drive faster if I was ever in a neighborhood I didn't know and heard Céline Dion mawking over the airwaves.

I sometimes shared this little anecdote with other Jamaican friends, only for them to laughingly comment that they had a similar practice. The unofficial rule seemed to be, "If you hear Céline Dion then you're in the wrong place."

When Codogan asked around, the reason given was, "to quote one fellow, 'Bad man have fi play love tune fi show 'dat them a lova too.'"