In contrast to the brittle edges of digital production, these recordings from the back of the Tip-Top Record Shop at 37 Orange Street, Kingston, bask in the kitchen-table warmth of vacuum-tube equipment technology. Sweet, fragile harmoies, bouncing basslines, and taffy-pull organ phrases contribute to the atmosphere of intimacy, but most of all, label-owner Sonia Pottinger's auteur's touch provides the sense of an unwavering attention to quality. All the hallmarks of a great pop collection are here: a novelty number worthy of an idiot savant (the Gaylads "ABC Rocky Steady"), uncredited cover versions (appropriating both The Beatles and Nat King Cole), an early duff ditty by a future star (Judy Mowatt's "I Shall Sing"), verses to inspire (from Strange Cole's "Let the Power Fall"), and flat-out scorchers like The Conqueror's "Look Pon You" and Ken Boothe's "Say You."
A1 | –Teddy (6) & The Conquerors | Home Bound | 2:12 |
A2 | –Delano Stewart* | That's Life | 3:05 |
A3 | –The Victors | Easy Squeeze | 2:53 |
A4 | –The Gaylads | ABC Rock Steady | 2:07 |
A5 | –Errol Dunkley | You'll Never Know | 3:55 |
A6 | –The Melodians | Little Nut Tree | 2:23 |
A7 | –Stranger Cole And Patsy* | Down By The Trainline | 2:44 |
A8 | –Ken Boothe | Say You | 2:48 |
B1 | –The Gaylads | It's Hard To Confess | 2:25 |
B2 | –The Conquerors | Look Pon You | 2:42 |
B3 | –Juliann (Judy Mowatt)* | I Shall Sing | 3:31 |
B4 | –Al And The Vibrators* | Devil Woman | 2:59 |
B5 | –Stranger Cole | Let The Power Fall | 2:16 |
B6 | –Delano Stewart* | The Riddle | 2:40 |
B7 | –The Melodians | Swing And Dine | 3:07 |
B8 | –Aubrey Adams And Roland Alphonso | Swinging Feast | 3:12 |