The soulful vocals of Desmond Dekker were some of the first from the Jamaican scene to let the rest of the world know that something magical was really taking place – and although the man himself is remembered for a few key singles back in the day, Desmond cut a heck of a lot of wonderful work – lots of which you'll find in this overstuffed set! The package brings together top-shelf tracks that certainly mark Dekker as one of the essentials of Trojan Records – much of it with his key group The Aces, and more with The Cherry Pies – plus later solo tracks too – all running strongly through the best modes of the ska, rocksteady, and early reggae generations. 2LP set features 28 tracks in all – and titles include "Intensified 68", "Jamaica Ska", Mother Pepper", "Wise Man", "Problem", "Rude Boy Train", "007", "Rudy Got Soul", "Unity", "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "Licking Stick", "Young Generation", "Get Up Adina", "Generosity", "Pretty Africa", "It Mek", "Israelites", and "Fu Man Chu". LP, Vinyl record album

Landmark work from Desmond Dekker – one of the first Jamaican artists to break bigger on the global scene at the end of the 60s – thanks to soulful sets like this! The music is still very much in a rocksteady mode, but has some currents of ska that's kept it on turntables for years – not the upbeat variant of the genre, but the laidback mode that was perfect for a hot night in Jamaica – when nobody ever wanted the grooves to move too fast! Both the instrumentation and production are impeccable – the latter handled by Leslie Kong – and Desmond is completely charming throughout, on titles that include "Music Like Dirt", "Rudy Got Soul", "007", "Sabotage", "Wise Man", "Shing A Ling", "Unity", "Mother Pepper", and "Mother's Young Girl". LP, Vinyl record album

The Trojan Records label was a pivotal force in taking reggae to a larger audience at the end of the 60s – pushing a huge amount of Jamaican artists into the global scene, and forever helping the sound of music in the process! Trojan was especially heavy in the years of ska and rocksteady, and this package is filled with some of the key cuts the label helped put on the map – tracks that are classic numbers from the early reggae years, and which had a hell of a lot of power both in Jamaica, and overseas in the UK! 2LP set features 28 tracks in all – and titles include "007" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces, "Double Barrel" by Dave & Ansel Collins, "Everything I Own" by Ken Boothe, "Uptown Top Ranking" by Althea & Donna, "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces, "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" by The Pioneers, "54 46 Was My Number" by the Maytals, "Monkey Spanner" by Dave & Ansel Collins, "OK Fred" by Errol Dunkley, "Girlie Girlie" by Sophia George, "Money In My Pocket" by Dennis Brown, "Black Pearl" by Horace Faith, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" by Desmond Dekker, and "To Be Young Gifted & Black" by Bob & Marcia. LP, Vinyl record album

A record that's not only a landmark in Jamaican music – but also a set that was to reggae what Curtis Mayfield's Superfly was to 70s soul! In other words, the set not only raised the bar for all the competition, it also ended up in a lot more record collections than most of them too – maybe in part because it was a soundtrack, as was Superfly – but also because it has this global power that makes it a defining album of the genre! Jimmy Cliff is obviously the mainman here, but there's help from other key players in the growing reggae scene – and titles include Jimmy's classic "You Can Get It If You Really Want", in two versions – plus two takes on "The Harder They Come", "Many Rivers To Cross", and "Sitting In Limbo" – plus "Sweet & Dandy" and "Pressure Drop" by The Maytals, "007" by Desmond Dekker, "Johnny Too Bad" by The Slicers, "Draw Your Brakes" by Scotty, and "Rivers Of Babylon" by The Melodians. LP, Vinyl record album

Lots of early reggae classics – work from Desmond Dekker, Dandy Livingston, Jimmy Cliff, Maytals, Bob Marley, Ethiopians, and others! LP, Vinyl record album