Missing a few of the best

This is a great Dekker collection, with some of his best like "007", "Fu Manchu", and, of course, "Israelites". Well worth buying. A minor quibble is that it does include some songs which are far from his best - "Reggae Recipe" and "Rude Boy Train" should have been axed in favor of classics like "Sabotage", "Beautiful & Dangerous", and "Pretty Africa".

Still a great buy, though.

The first international reggae star

Bob Marley is by far the most famous reggae performer there has yet been, but even he probably owes some of his success to Desmond Dekker (born Desmond Dacres), who blazed the trail for reggae music in the sixties.



Desmond began his recording career in 1963 with Honour your father and mother. He had a long run of hits in his native Jamaica, many of them going to number one, eventually scoring internationally as well.



He made his debut in the UK charts in 1967, when 007 (inspired by James Bond, of course) made the top twenty. It seemed to be a one-off until, in 1969, Israelites went to the very top of the UK charts and also became a top ten American hit. It meik (a UK top ten hit) and You can get it if you really want (a number two UK hit in 1970) consolidated his reputation. Between those hits, Desmond had a minor UK hit with Pinckney girl.



The international hits dried up although Israelites was re-issued in 1975 and again made the UK top ten. A follow-up (Sing a sad song - not included here) made the UK top twenty. By that time, other reggae performers had emerged, foremost among them being Bob Marley.



So this collection contains the important international hits of Desmond Dekker, together with the best of his other recordings. It would take a lot more than a single CD to include all his Jamaican hits, but this is enough for most people.

This is the best reggae CD I've ever heard.

I had to control myself at work because the minute I put this CD into my personal CD player, the beat was booming and Desmond's voice is melodical and beautiful. It is an excellent collection of songs to listen and dance to. This was worth the investment in my collection of old school reggae.