@jahsilohdemaatoh: Never Forgotten 16th July 1941 - 25th May 2006 Today is the birthday in paradise of a great real jamaican legend & superstar like Desmond Adolphus Dacres, better known as Desmond Dekker. He spent a period in the orphanage in Seaforth in the St. Thomas region and later moved to Kingston to work as a welder. He began to approach music in the early 1960s, but after the difficult relationships with both Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid he was seen rejected by the two most popular producers of the period, the only one willing to approach him was Leslie Kong, a producer of Chinese origin, and it was the propitiatory meeting for his future as a singer. In 1963 he recorded his first career single, "Honor Your Father And Mother" and was printed on the historic "Beverly's" label in Jamaica and was even printed in England thanks to the courtesy of Chris Blackwell. In this period Desmond founded his group "The Aces" so he called himself "Desmond Dekker And The Aces" and in all the 60s he had great successes, reaching the recording of 20 singles and always first in the listening and sale. After the Ska period, the rocksteady pressed more and more and in '66 he recorded "007 Shanty Town" and the following year in '67 he came second at the "Jamaican Song Festival" with the song "Unity" and he still recorded other singles as " Rudie Got Soul "," Sabotage "," Hey Grandma "," Music Like Dirt "and" Rude Boy Train ". In 1969 with the song "Israelites" it achieved full success in England and became the first song in the chart for several months and even the song went up to America, and it was a striking novelty for that period. In England he recorded other songs such as "A It Mek" and "Problems", achieving more and more success, long before the arrival of Bob Marley And The Wailers, and became the most famous Jamaican reggae artist known all over the world. Desmond continues his artistic career by performing in various London clubs gaining a strong appreciation from his audience and continues to record songs such as "Pickney Gal" and the wonderful cover of Jimmy Cliff "You Can Get It If You Really Want", a song extracted from the film by Jimmy Cliff himself "The Harder They Come". On 9 August 1971 Leslie Kong, his producer and friend, but also the first official producer who approached Bob Marley to record his first songs, died of a heart attack and Desmond, left without a leader next to him, all he had to do was move on to label "Cactus" and in '75 he recorded another single from the unusual genre, a pop / reggae song entitled "Sing A Little Song". The disappearance of Leslie Kong almost definitely marked a decline in Desmond's popularity, so much so that in 1980 when he recorded the album "Black And Dekker" he did not appear in any charts, and no success was reported. The following year in 1981 he still recorded a new Lp "Compass Point", but the songs were already known, a sort of compilation of old songs, all his workhorses of a time unfortunately already past and far away. But the abrupt stop came in 1984 when he was convicted of bankruptcy by the English supreme court, and remained inactive for a long time until 1993 when he recorded the new album "King Of Kings" together with four members of the English ska group "The Specials". Its artistic value, its characteristic in the falsetto vocal still remains in the history of reggae, a pity, however, only many years ago during the 60s and early 70s, after which it only recorded many and too many compilations. In 1969 Dekker took permanent residency in the UK. In 1984 he was declared bankrupt. Dekker died of a heart attack on 25 May 2006, at his home in Thornton Heath in the London Borough of Croydon, England, aged 64[3] and was buried at Streatham Park Cemetery. He was preparing to headline The World Music Festival in Prague. Dekker was divorced and was survived by his son and daughter.

Jahsiloh Demaatoh

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Wednesday 15 July 2026 22:31:25 GMT