World of Jamaican Music

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

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Dandy Livingstone

Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1964-1983
Sunrise
December 14, 1943, Kingston, Jamaica
Also recorded as
Sugar & Dandy, Brother Dan's All Stars
Also known as
Dandy, Brother Dan

Robert Livingstone Thompson recorded as Dandy Livingstone and was one of the Jamaican singers who became important figures in London. "All the studios couldn't get that authentic sound," he recalled, "so we were doing a thing until we just created our own British sound."

He emigrated to London at fifteen to live with his mother. By one account his recording career started without his consent: a tenant in his building taped his jam sessions and released them on the Planetone label. As a schoolboy he sold records door to door for Lee Gopthal's mail-order business, and it was Gopthal who pointed him to Carnival Records. The keyboard player Ansel Collins is his first cousin, though the two did not grow up close. When Carnival Records went looking for a Jamaican vocal duo in 1964, Livingstone double-tracked his own voice and invented one, calling it Sugar and Dandy. "What a Life" sold twenty-five thousand copies, after which he recruited Roy Smith and later Tito "Sugar" Simone so that the duo could appear onstage.

He signed to Ska Beat in 1967 and released Rocksteady with Dandy, and the same year wrote and recorded "Rudy, a Message to You," with Rico Rodriguez on trombone. By his account he wrote it in ten minutes or less and cut it on the Old Kent Road with the engineer Vic Keary, bringing Rico in a week later to play the melody line. The song warns a rude boy to change course. The Specials covered it in 1979 with Rodriguez playing the same part, and it reached the British top ten and became one of the defining records of 2 Tone.

His arrangement with Trojan Records in 1968 covered both performing and in-house production, and seven of the first ten singles on the relaunched label were his work, credited to Dandy or Brother Dan. Trojan created the Down Town subsidiary for his British recordings. He produced Tony Tribe's reggae version of "Red Red Wine," the arrangement UB40 later followed to a worldwide hit, and recorded Audrey Hall, the Marvels, and Rico Rodriguez as Rico and the Rudies.

"Reggae in Your Jeggae" (1969) helped push the word reggae into British usage. "Suzanne Beware of the Devil" reached number fourteen in Britain in 1972 and became a skinhead standard. His "authentic rough vocals," he said, were what they wanted on it. It had first come out as a B side; by his account a club deejay's plays turned it into his first national hit after a Trojan remake by Nicky Thomas failed to catch on.

When Trojan collapsed financially in the mid-1970s he left music, returned to Jamaica, and lived on royalties, principally from the Specials cover. He recorded nothing for roughly forty years before releasing "They Call Us Legends" in 2020.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 384-85, counts him among the Jamaican singers who "became important figures in London" and gives his birth as "Robert Livingstone Thompson, 1944, Kingston"; Bradley says he "had been part of the UK Jamaican music business since he was a kid." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 243. Wikipedia gives December 14, 1943. "Dandy Livingstone," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_Livingstone. Angus Taylor, "Interview with Dandy Livingstone: The Return of a Legend," Reggaeville, May 27, 2019, https://reggaeville.com/artist-details/dandy-livingstone/news/view/interview-with-dandy-livingstone-the-return-of-a-legend.
  2. The Rough Guide says he moved to the UK "at the ripe old age of 15," having "enjoyed youthful success in Jamaica" first; the Gleaner says he left in 1959 to join his mother. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385; Roy Black, "At 75, Dandy Livingstone Makes a Comeback," Jamaica Gleaner, October 7, 2019, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20191007/75-dandy-livingstone-makes-comeback.
  3. The story of the unauthorized Planetone release is Wikipedia's. "Dandy Livingstone," Wikipedia. Bradley names Dandy and Tito Simon, "often billed as Sugar & Dandy," among the regular vocalists on Sonny Roberts's Planetone label. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 125. See also Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 383. Livingstone himself told Augustyn that his session for Carnival "is where I did my first recording. That was in 1964." Heather Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!," SkaBook (blog), January 8, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/01/08/a-message-to-you-from-dandy-livingstone/, her interview of January 7, 2016.
  4. Livingstone to Augustyn, who also quotes him on his cousin: "I didn't know he [Ansel Collins] was a musician until 1969." Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!"
  5. The double-tracking, the sales of "What a Life," and the recruitment of Roy Smith and then Tito Simon are from Wikipedia. "Dandy Livingstone," Wikipedia. The Rough Guide says he "made his name with Sugar Simone, recording as Sugar & Dandy." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385. Livingstone told Angus Taylor, "I didn't want to be called Sugar so I was called Dandy." Angus Taylor, "Interview with Dandy Livingstone: The Return of a Legend," Reggaeville, May 27, 2019, https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/dandy-livingstone/news/view/interview-with-dandy-livingstone-the-return-of-a-legend/. He told Augustyn that Roy Smith sang on three songs after the first session and that Tito Simon "sat in on one session." Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!"
  6. The Rough Guide dates "A Message To You Rudy" to 1967, on Ska Beat, "featuring the trombonist Rico Rodriguez." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385. On Rocksteady with Dandy, "Dandy Livingstone," Wikipedia.
  7. Livingstone to Augustyn: "the song was finished in about 10 minutes," and he told Rico, "Just play the melody line." Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!" In 2019 he told Taylor he wrote it in two minutes: Taylor, "Interview with Dandy Livingstone."
  8. Bradley describes Livingstone's earlier "We Are Rude" as one of the records that were "more musical accolades to rude boy-ism than bona fide replies." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 190.
  9. The Specials' version reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in 1979. "A Message to You Rudy," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_You_Rudy. Taylor calls Livingstone, with Prince Buster, "one of the architects of the Two-Tone punk-meets-ska revival." Taylor, "Return of a Legend."
  10. The Gleaner says he was at Trojan from its beginning in 1968 and helped Bunny Lee and Lee Gopthal name it, working as salesman, songwriter, producer, and artist. Black, "At 75, Dandy Livingstone Makes a Comeback." Bradley says B&C/Island set up a Dandy label for his UK productions; the Rough Guide says Trojan gave him the Down Town and J-Dan labels, after the R&B company had given him Giant, and lists Brother Dan's All Stars' "Donkey Returns" (1969). Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 239; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385.
  11. The Rough Guide calls Tony Tribe's "Red Red Wine" Dandy's "most successful production of the period," a record that "twice scraped into the pop charts in 1969" and was later revived by UB40. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385. On Audrey Hall, the Marvels, and Rico & the Rudies, "Dandy Livingstone," Wikipedia.
  12. Bradley lists "Reggae in Your Jeggae" among the "lower-profile big sellers" of the skinhead underground; the Rough Guide calls it "a skinhead favourite" of 1969. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 242; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385.
  13. The Rough Guide says it "made the UK pop charts in 1972"; Wikipedia gives number 14 and says Livingstone had earlier produced Nicky Thomas's version. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 385; "Dandy Livingstone," Wikipedia.
  14. Livingstone to Augustyn, who quotes him: "'Suzanne' was really the first national hit," since "'Rudy' was an underground hit at the time." He names the deejay as "I think ... Emperor Roscoe." Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!" Taylor, "Interview with Dandy Livingstone."
  15. Livingstone told Taylor that he fought to recover the copyrights of his 92 songs from B&C as Trojan folded, that he and his wife moved back to Jamaica in about 1980, and that he then built a souvenir and crafts distribution business; Taylor dates his departure from music to 1983. On the Specials' cover he said he was approached by Eddy Grant but stayed with Carlin Music, which "still publish my things." Taylor, "Return of a Legend."
  16. The Gleaner reported the single "They Call Us Legends," his first new record in forty years, in 2019, with the album to follow. Black, "At 75, Dandy Livingstone Makes a Comeback." He told Augustyn that his appearance at the Skamouth festival in March 2015 was "the first time in 42 years that I went on a stage." Augustyn, "A Message to You from Dandy Livingstone!"

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