ESSENTIAL REGGAE (Universal)

Ever wanted an album filled with classic reggae hits?

Well this is your chance to get your hands on two of them in Essential Reggae - 40 ClassicReggae Hits.

The album starts off with everyone's favourite reggae tune, Sun Is Shining by legendary Bob Marley, first appearing on the LeePerry-produced album Soul Revolution in 1971.

Don't Turn Around, written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, was originally recorded by tina turner as the b-side on the 45rpm record of the single Typical Male in 1986. In 1988, Aswad made a cover of it,taking the song to No1 on the UK singles chart in March 1988.

Chaka Demus and Pliers' first hit, Tease Me, stayed in the top five ofthe UK Singles chart, for three months in 1993.

Also on the album is their No 1 hit Twist And Shout.

Most of you are familiar with the 1971 song Killing Me Softly With His Song. This album carries an earlier John Holt's cover, whose style is more romantic than most of his contemporaries. It is a recognisable forerunner of a style of reggae known as "Lovers rock", which developed in Britain during the 1970s.

Holt appears again on CD2 with Help Me Get Through The Night.

Welcome To Jamrock is the single from the album with the same name byDamian Robert Nesta "Junior Gong" Marley, Bob's youngest son. Damian is the first and only Jamaican reggae artiste in history to win two Grammy Awards on the same night for best reggae Album and best Urban/Alternative Performance for Welcome To Jamrock in 2006.

In 1967, Dawn Penn recorded the rocksteady single You Don't Love Me(No, No, No), which is in fact a remake of a 1961 blues tune called You Don't Love Me by Willie cobbs, which itself was a remake of bo Diddley's1955 song She's Fine, She's Mine a.k.a. You Don't Love Me.

Toots and the Maytals are one of the best known ska and reggae vocalgroups, with their music combining gospel, ska, soul, reggae and rockelements. But the group's musical career was interrupted in late 1966when their leader, Frederick "Toots" Hibbert, was jailed for marijuana charges.

It is during this time that toots wrote one of the greatest andwell-known song in reggaedome, 54-46 That's My Number, about his time in jail (54-46 was Toots' prison number). They appear again on CD2 with Funky Kingston.

Godfather of ska, Jimmy Cliff, is best known among mainstream audiences for The Harder They Come from the groundbreaking Jamaican film of the same name, which helped popularise reggae across the world. He also appears again with Wonderful World, Beautiful People on CD2.

Before the ascent of Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker was one of the mostpopular musician within Jamaica, and one of the best-known Jamaican musician outside it. Among his best known releases of this period was YouCan Get It If You Really Want.

He appears again together with his backinggroup, the Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), with one of the first international Jamaican hits, Israelites.

Red Red Wine, originally written and recorded by Neil Diamond, is covered here by Tony Tribe and given a rocksteady feel.

Jamaican reggae vocal trio The Pioneers also appears with their 1969 hit Long Shot Kick De Bucket, which was later taken to No1 in 1980 by TheSpecials.

Ska, rocksteady, and reggae vocal group The Ethiopians, founded byLeonard Dillon, also appears with their 1999 hit Train To Skaville, as well as another ska legend, Dandy Livingstone, with his 1972 hit Rudy,Message To You.

To complete the album are black Uhuru, formed by Derrick "Duckie"Simpson, with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Janet Kay with her SillyGames.

As the title suggest, Essential Reggae - 40 Classic Reggae Hits is amust-have for all reggae cult classic connoisseurs. – NST 19/10/2008