Delroy Wilson

Delroy Wilson was one of Jamaica's most soulful vocalists, and over a 40-year career the singer unleashed a flood of hits and a multitude of masterpieces. Born on October 5, 1948, in the Kingston neighborhood of Trenchtown, Wilson's phenomenal talent would be his ticket out of the ghetto, and his discovery by producer Coxsone Dodd in 1962 would change the path of Jamaican music. His first recording for Dodd, "If I Had a Beautiful Baby" did little, but the producer stuck by his prodigy, and his follow-up "Spit in the Sky," was a sound system smash. That number was Dodd's personally composed smack at rival Prince Buster, while Lee Perry penned Wilson's "Joe Liges" as a sharp rebuke aimed at Buster's "Bad Minded People." "Joe Liges" garnered Wilson his first chart hit, and sparked Jamaican's continuing love affair with pint-sized singing stars. The vinyl battle continued across a clutch of notable singles, including "Prince Pharaoh" and "I Shall Not Remove," the latter titling Wilson's 1966 debut album, while he also cut the proto-Rasta "Lion of Judah." Across the ska era, the teen sensation recorded a steady stream of popular numbers for Dodd, and even better material was to come once he hit puberty and his voice broke. Wilson's cover of the Tams' "Dancing Mood" arrived in 1966, helping to set the stage for the rocksteady era. The song was a smash, and remained a fan favorite, prompting the singer to recut the song several times in later years. A deluge of classic hits followed over the next year. "Riding for a Fall," "Once Upon a Time," "Won't You Come Home," "Conquer Me," "True Believer," "I'm Not a King," and "Rain from the Sky" all flooded out of Studio One and onto the Jamaican chart, establishing Wilson as one of the label's biggest hitmakers. Many of these seminal...