December 18

A week to go to Christmas!

When Chris Blackwell set up Island Records and took artists to Jamaica to record, he also took a very talented Jamaican who had already had four big hits but had since moved to England. This was Jackie Edwards, a Jamaican singer/songwriter whose style spanned reggae,  ska, R&B, latin, soul and rock. His biggest successes were when two of his songs made N°1 in the UK when covered by the Spencer Davis Group, namely Keep On Running and Somebody Help Me. We base our version of Keep on Running on the better-known Spencer Davis version, but it’s worth a listen to one of the early talents from Jamaica in 1965. First our one:

And also the excellent original from Jackie Edwards which few people have heard. He also re-recorded it later in a reggae format, which you might want to look for on YouTube, along with his version of Somebody Help Me.

Tomorrow it all gets a bit Kinky.

Previous | Back to Advent Calendar | Next