WHO CHARTED?

Here's an oddball, and a few others. Because I never heard of a half German version of Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop", it's reasonable to presume that some of you haven't either. So it's down there, along with the original. It led to the connecting of a few dots, which in turn is why there is this post. If you're not familiar with the significance of "My Boy Lollipop", recorded by Small when she was 15, the original all-English version was the first reggae related song to be played on AM radio in the U.S., reaching #2 on the charts in 1964. (It's actually bluebeat, but you catch the drift.) It's also the first single that made a ton of loot for Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who would use the dough for the big Bob Marley push in 1973. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Fuck, I love the moves in this one. Really. The coolest thing I've seen in a while.

To give you an idea how barren the U.S. charts were (and still are) in regards to reggae, the next time reggae would appear would be 1968, when Johnny Nash's "Hold Me Tight" charted. Nash's reached #5, prompting a cover, with rewritten lyrics, used in a commercial for Score after shave (believe me when I say that the commercial was inescapable). The song was released on Nash's JAD Records, the same year that Nash had turned his ear toward Jamaican music, leading to his signing of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Nash had hoped to break rocksteady in the U.S. but wouldn't quite get there (which is why the Wailers were available when Blackwell came calling). Another four years would pass before reggae appeared on the U.S. charts again, with Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now", and Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion". Nash's album, also titled "I Can See Clearly Now", contained four Marley penned songs, including "Stir It Up". Simon's song, "Mother and Child Reunion", was recorded with Jimmy Cliff's backing band, the guitarist and bass player of which also backed Toots and the Maytals. (Marley must have been busy that day.)

Bob Marley and the Wailers - Stir It Up

Two years later, in 1974, Eric Clapton covered Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff", and it went to #1. (Marley's original was released in '73, on his second album album under his contract with Island/Blackwell.) That was about the time that the AM Boss Radio began fading, giving way to the looser formatted FM radio, which was where Bob Marley would make his name in the U.S., though with limited airplay (back then). So there you have it. The complete history of U.S. AM radio reggae hits, in four artists, five songs, and ten years..

If I was 15 years old in 1964, I would have been obsessed.

As I mentioned above, Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop" was the first song that made any real money for Blackwell. He had put out 26 singles up to that point, none of them sticking to the wall. Small's song was a huge international hit, and came at a time when the label was struggling; it kept the label alive. When it came time to sign Marley, it was done with a hand shake deal, and Blackwell paid for the first recording sessions. The hand shake deal was enabled by Blackwell's trust in rastas, the result of a beach rescue at their hands, when he was 19 (in 1958). So, in a stretch, it's conceivable that if it weren't for a 15 year old girl, and some kind rastas, Marley never would have made it big. Like I said, it's a stretch, but I'm big on "what if" scenarios.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop (English) mp3 at Le Blog de la Grande Chose
Millie Small - My Boy Lollipop (German/English) mp3 at Dust On the Stylus
Johnny Nash - Hold Me Tight mp3 at Playa Cofi Jukebox
Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now mp3 at Sveinbjorn.com
Johnny Nash - Stir It Up mp3 at Playa Cofi Jukebox
Paul Simon - Mother and Child Reunion mp3 at Idaocao.com (Japan)
Eric Clapton - I Shot the Sheriff mp3 at MilwaukeeBay.com