Desmond Dekker

Thanks to his warm, yearning vocals and polished style, Desmond Dekker became one of Jamaican music’s premier vocalists—and a big reason for its increasingly global popularity through the ‘60s and ‘70s. Born in 1941 in Saint Andrew Parish, Dekker was working as a welder in Kingston when he landed his first recording contract with producer and label boss Leslie Kong in 1961. After scoring a series of ska hits in the mid-‘60s, the young singer embraced the socially conscious lyrics reflective of the emergent rude-boy sensibility, as well as the less hectic, more melodic sound of rocksteady. With 1967’s “007 (Shanty Town)” and 1968’s “Israelites,” Dekker provided Jamaican music with two of its foundation stones. Both were also major hits in the UK, the country that became Dekker’s home in 1969. That’s also where Dekker experienced a career resurgence when many of punk’s prime movers embraced reggae and ska. Dekker’s recordings and tours with acts like Graham Parker & The Rumour and The Specials in the ‘80s and ‘90s further bolstered his iconic status before his death in 2006.