Millie Small 45 RPM Cover /Island Records
The daughter of an overseer of a Jamaican sugar plantation, teenager Millie Small was discovered by Chris Blackwell in 1963 and taken to London, where she recorded a number of singles before breaking through a year later with “My Boy Lollipop,” considered by many to be the first international “blue beat/ska” hit.
Prior to going to England, she had recorded in Jamaica at Sir Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label with Roy Panton (as Roy & Millie), scoring one local hit called “We’ll Meet.” She only charted once more in America, and performed through the ’70s until settling in the United Kingdom, where she passed away in 2020.
“My Boy Lollipop” was originally written by Robert Spencer from the doo-wop band The Cadillacs for a singer named Barbie Gaye who was promoted by disc jockey Alan Freed. Notorious gangster-record exec Morris Levy, who was sort of like a Jewish version of Suge Knight, also received credit. When Small’s version took off, Levy took full credit and stripped Spencer’s name off the song.
As ska music began to evolve during that time period, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingstone came together and began recording in the studio initially with Leslie Kong in 1962, and then producer Coxsone Dodd. They were first called The Teenagers, followed by the Wailing Wailers.
The aforementioned Chris Blackwell began releasing the band’s albums worldwide in 1969 on his Island Records label that he founded back in 1958. Tosh and Livingstone left in 1974 for reasons having to do with their religion and the clubs they were playing in, but each went on to have their own successful careers.
Sometime in the mid-’70s I got a chance to meet Bob Marley at a hotel in Philadelphia. I was doing sales for Island’s local distributor and was invited to a dinner in his honor with local radio and record store folks. Several of us got there early, finding Marley sitting and talking to a couple of old friends. In 1966 he had lived with his mom for a short time in nearby Wilmington, Delaware, working briefly at both DuPont and on the Chrysler assembly line.
With a big fat spliff in his hand, he stood up in bare feet, walked over to greet us, and extended his hand. He was soft spoken and very gracious; we spoke for several minutes and I was disappointed he didn’t offer to share his spliff. Could have made for a better story, but this is all I’ve got. A memory.
Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is therealeasyed@gmail.com