World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Bob Andy

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1966-2020
Sunrise
October 28, 1944, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
March 27, 2020, Stony Hill, St. Andrew, Jamaica (cancer)
Also recorded as
Bob & Marcia

Keith Anderson, who recorded as Bob Andy, was widely admired in Jamaica for his emotive voice and poetic lyrics, and the Rough Guide ranks his songwriting with that of Joe Higgs, Larry Marshall, Leroy Sibbles, and Bob Marley.

His childhood was difficult. He was raised partly by an abusive mother in a Kingston slum and partly by his grandparents in Westmoreland, ran away from relatives who mistreated him, and finally fled to the Maxfield Park children's home in Kingston, where he taught himself piano and sang in the Kingston Parish Church choir. He was made a ward of the state after a court hearing in which his mother contested the placement.

He founded the Paragons with Tyrone Evans and Howard Barrett and recorded with them at Studio One, but left after John Holt joined and took over the lead. He stayed at Studio One, at first delivering records and writing, and began recording under his own name. "I've Got to Go Back Home" (1967) was the first solo hit and became a standard for Jamaicans living abroad. "Desperate Lover," "Feeling Soul," "Unchained," "My Time," and "Too Experienced" followed, and Dodd collected them on Bob Andy's Song Book. His best records, the Rough Guide says, were well-crafted expressions of the sufferers' tribulations that never relied simply on heavy rhythms and chant structures: he wrote "memorable melodies that could equally have suited the most romantic love songs," and it adds that he was "one of the most soulful vocal stylists the island has ever produced." Bradley describes Dodd using him to carry the label's protest music, mixing conscious songs into a largely lovers' output.

He wrote for others throughout: "I Don't Want to See You Cry" for Ken Boothe and "Feel Like Jumping" for Marcia Griffiths, among many more. Later versions carried his songs into a new era, among them Barrington Levy's "Too Experienced" in 1990 and Griffiths's dancehall "Fire Burning." With Griffiths he formed Bob and Marcia, whose version of Nina Simone's "Young, Gifted and Black" reached number five in Britain in 1970, followed by "Pied Piper" in 1971. Neither singer saw much of the money. Back in Jamaica he had hits with "Life" (1972) and "Fire Burning" (1974), a comment on the island's political violence, and "Nyah," on The Music Inside Me (1975), marked his turn to Rastafari.

Andy worked as a producer, a television presenter, and an actor in later years, and continued to record. Jamaica made him a Commander of the Order of Distinction in 2006. He departed at his home in Stony Hill in March 2020; the cause was cancer.

Last updated November 4, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Katz writes that he was "widely admired for his emotive voice and poetic lyrics": David Katz, "Bob Andy Obituary," Guardian, March 30, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/30/bob-andy-obituary. Barrow and Dalton place him among Jamaica's few "quality songwriters," in "the select company of Joe Higgs, Larry Marshall, Leroy Sibbles and Bob Marley": Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 78.
  2. Katz says he was raised by "his abusive mother in a city slum and by maternal grandparents in rural Westmoreland," was placed with extended family after his grandmother died, ran away after mistreatment, and fled to the Maxfield Park home, where "a judge ruled in Andy's favour" over his mother's opposition. Katz, "Bob Andy Obituary." On the church choir, "Bob Andy," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Andy.
  3. Barrow and Dalton note that he was "a founder member" of the Paragons but had left by the time they joined Treasure Isle: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 65. Wikipedia says he left "after Holt rejoined": "Bob Andy," Wikipedia.
  4. Barrow and Dalton give his first single for Dodd after leaving the Paragons in 1966 as "Crime Don't Pay": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 78. On delivering records, "Bob Andy," Wikipedia.
  5. Barrow and Dalton note that Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh sang harmony on it and call it "a call for repatriation which could equally be heard as the cry of a homesick country boy": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 38, 78. Wikipedia dates it to 1967: "Bob Andy," Wikipedia. Katz also gives 1967. Katz, "Bob Andy Obituary."
  6. On "Feeling Soul" and "My Time," Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 78; on the Song Book, whose title was "chosen by Mr Dodd apparently," 72.
  7. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 78.
  8. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 346.
  9. Barrow and Dalton credit Andy with "I Don't Want To See You Cry" and with Griffiths's "Mark My Words," "Tell Me Now," and "Melody Life," and note that she "also cut" "Feel Like Jumping": Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 69.
  10. Katz, "Bob Andy Obituary"; Howard Campbell, "Bob Andy...Lyrical Genius," Reggae Global Radio, October 24, 2025, https://reggaeglobalradio.com/rgr-times-with-howard-campbell/blog/bob-andy-lyrical-genius.
  11. Bradley credits Harry J with pairing the two and notes that Andy himself produced "Pied Piper"; Trojan's orchestrated version of "Young, Gifted and Black" was "a Top 5 hit": Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 226, 244. Barrow and Dalton date the duets to 1969: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 78. Katz adds the Trojan overdubs and gives "Pied Piper" a peak of number 11. Katz, "Bob Andy Obituary."
  12. Katz, "Bob Andy Obituary."
  13. Wikipedia lists his film roles in Children of Babylon (1980) and The Mighty Quinn (1989): "Bob Andy," Wikipedia.
  14. The Gleaner reports the award "in the rank of Commander" in October 2006: "Reggae Singer Bob Andy Has Died," Jamaica Gleaner, March 27, 2020, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20200327/reggae-singer-bob-andy-has-died.
  15. The Gleaner gives his age as 76 and says he had been "battling cancer for some years": "Reggae Singer Bob Andy Has Died." Wikipedia gives pancreatic cancer and his age as 75: "Bob Andy," Wikipedia.

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