Rock Steady With Dandy

Historic album previously unavailable on any format for 56 years. Most tracks unavailable since the rock steady era. Includes original versions of ‘Rudy, A Message To You’ and ‘Let’s Do Rock Steady’. By 1967, the Jamaican music industry in the UK was flourishing, its success primarily due to the efforts of a number of talented British-based singers, songwriters, and producers, chief among them being the young multi-talented music maker Robert Thompson AKA Dandy. Having first achieved notable success in 1964, partnering Tito Simon on a series of ska singles as Sugar & Dandy, Thompson subsequently made his mark as a solo performer, cutting singles for Emil Shalit’s Melodisc Records before commencing a hugely productive relationship with Rita & Benny King’s R&B Records. Of his earliest work for the Kings were two of the most enduring rock steady tracks of the era, ‘Rudy, A Message To You’ and ‘Let’s Do Rock Steady’ – later covered by Two-Tone hitmakers, The Specials and The Bodysnatchers, respectively. Thompson’s popularity on the UK Jamaican music scene resulted in the release of his popular debut album ‘Rock Steady With Dandy’, which saw issue on the R&B subsidiary, Giant in 1967. Now, well over half a decade later, the collection is finally made available again, with its dozen tracks bolstered by a further 33 recordings, with this 2CD set representing the very best of Dandy’s rock steady output for R&B, recorded prior to his move to Trojan Records in the summer of 68.