King of Ska: The Beverley's Records Ska Singles Collection

In 1963, a 21-year-old welder with dreams of becoming a full-time singer-songwriter, auditioned for one of Jamaica's new elite record producers, Leslie Kong, owner of the recently launched Beverley's Records label. After performing a number of original compositions, a deal was secured and within weeks, Desmond Adolphus Dacres saw his name in print as 'Desmond Dekker' on the labels of what would prove to be the first of his catalogue of 7-inch singles.The record, which coupled two of his own songs, 'Honour Your Mother and Father' and 'Madgie', became an instant best-seller and heralded the beginning of a long and immensely successful run of singles by Dekker, both as a solo artist and later, as lead singer for The Aces.To mark what would have been Desmond's 80th birthday on 16th July 2021, this 2xCD set showcases Dekker's first twenty singles for Kong's Beverley's labels which established him as a true Jamaican superstar.The 2xCD set is presented in a fold out digipack, along with a 12 page booklet with fascinating sleeve notes written by journalist Winston Smith.

Disc 1
1: Honour Your Mother and Father
2: Madgie
3: Happy Birthday Jamaica
4: Sinners, Prepare!
5: Parents
6: Labour of Learning
7: Dracula
8: Spitfire
9: Jeserine
10: Take Your Time
11: King of Ska
12: Boof Ska
13: Get Up Adinah
14: Sleepwalk
15: It Was Only a Dream
16: Just One Little Girl
17: This Woman
18: Mount Zion
19: Soldiering
20: Just in Time

Disc 2
1: It's a Shame
2: On the Move
3: 007
4: El Torro
5: Wise Man
6: Middle East Roland
7: Rude Boy Train
8: Nothing for Nothing
9: Mother's Young Gal
10: Jungle Bit
11: You've Got Your Troubles
12: Don Special
13: Unity
14: Sweet Music
15: Keep a Cool Head
16: Charade
17: Mother Long Tongue
18: Halls of Montezuma
19: Sabotage
20: Pretty Africa

Number of Discs: 2

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