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 →

Derrick Harriott

Producer. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1960s-2026
Sunrise
February 6, 1939, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
October 24, 2026
Also known as
Jiving Juniors, The Jiving Juniors

Derrick Clifton Harriott had two careers, as one of the smoothest singers of the rocksteady era and as the producer and label owner behind a large body of work by other people, and he outlasted almost all of his contemporaries.

He entered the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour talent show as a schoolboy at Excelsior, first alone and then as a duo with Claude Sang Jr., and won repeatedly. In 1958 he formed the Jiving Juniors with Eugene Dwyer, Herman Sang, and Maurice Wynter, a doo-wop-influenced group that had hits with "Lollipop Girl" for Duke Reid and "Over the River" for Coxsone Dodd. Harriott sang lead in both tenor and falsetto, and Roy Black of the Gleaner counts him the only Jamaican singer to have had hits in two separate voices. He moved to the United States around 1959, a heavy blow to the group, and later revived it in New York with Herman Sang, Winston Service, and Valmont Burke, recording "Sugar Dandy" and "Don't Treat Me Bad"; that lineup split in 1962.

He then founded the Crystal label and went solo. "I Care" was the first hit, followed by "What Can I Do," "The Jerk," "Solomon," "Walk the Streets," and "The Loser," the last of which is the record he is best remembered for: a study in restraint, in which the voice never rises to match the sentiment.

As a producer he had a better ear than most. He recorded Keith and Tex, whose "Stop That Train" and "Tonight" are among the finest rocksteady singles ever made, the Kingstonians' "Singer Man," the Ethiopians, the deejay Scotty, Big Youth, the Chosen Few, and Winston McAnuff. His house band, the Crystalites, cut instrumentals with spaghetti western motifs, and Dennis Brown's Super Reggae and Soul Hits was a Harriott production. In Britain, Trojan ran the Song Bird and Explosion labels largely on his output.

He was among the first producers to take work to King Tubby at Waterhouse, and the resulting Scrub a Dub, credited to the Crystalites, is one of the earliest dub albums. Swing magazine named him producer of the year for 1970.

He kept making records long after the rocksteady years, with later hits including "Checking Out" and "Skin to Skin" (1985), and in 1988 he and Yellowman recorded "Starting All Over Again," a song about the damage done by Hurricane Gilbert. In July 2002 he was on the bill of the two-night Legends of Ska festival at the Palais Royale in Toronto, alongside Prince Buster, Alton Ellis, Justin Hinds, Stranger Cole, and the Skatalites.

In 1966 he opened a record shop and distribution business on King Street in downtown Kingston, around the corner from Bob Marley's shop, and the two knew each other from that and from sessions. The business later moved to Twin Gates Plaza in Half-Way Tree, and as the Derrick Harriott Music Store it was still trading at the time of his departure; Olivia Grange, Jamaica's culture minister, credited it with helping to preserve the island's music. He held the Order of Distinction, awarded in 2009, and in 2019 the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association gave him a lifetime achievement award. He departed at his home on October 24, 2026, aged eighty-seven. Grange called him "a true pioneer of Jamaican music" and noted that "The Loser" had inspired Freddie McGregor's "Winner."

Last updated October 26, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says he established himself "as one of the first singers to control his own productions and career." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 102.
  2. Harriott told Angus Taylor that he first entered the Opportunity Hour alone, singing the Turbans' "When You Dance," without placing, then entered with Claudie Sang Jr., after which "the lowest we'd come is second." Angus Taylor, "Interview: Derrick Harriott (Part 1)," United Reggae, March 18, 2015, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1797/031815/interview-derrick-harriott-part-1. Bradley recounts his paying out "almost half of his two pounds second prize" to hangers-on the first time he placed. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 20.
  3. The spelling Wynter follows Harriott and the two Gleaner features cited below. Harriott says he formed the group while Claudie Sang was studying in Barbados. Taylor, "Derrick Harriott (Part 1)." Wikipedia gives 1958. "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Harriott.
  4. Harriott told Bradley that "Lollipop Girl" began as a 1956 Sang & Harriott demo cut at Stanley Motta's and sold to the Thunderbird sound, and that Coxsone and Duke Reid both played it in a clash; Bradley says Reid re-recorded it about two years later. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 40-42. Harriott says the Reid recording was credited to the Jiving Juniors and released officially in 1960, and that "Over the River" followed for Dodd in 1961. Taylor, "Derrick Harriott (Part 1)."
  5. "Jiving Juniors Unleashes Derrick Harriott on the World," Jamaica Gleaner, May 18, 2014, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140518/ent/ent91.html. Roy Black, "The Music Diaries: Singing Groups Lose Lead Vocalists to Solo Careers," Jamaica Gleaner, July 24, 2016, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20160724/music-diaries-singing-groups-lose-lead-vocalists-solo-careers.
  6. The 2014 Gleaner piece dates the move to 1959; Black says he "temporarily migrated" around 1959-1960 and names the New York lineup and its hits. "Jiving Juniors Unleashes Derrick Harriott"; Black, "Singing Groups Lose Lead Vocalists." Wikipedia says the New York group recorded at Mirasound Studios. "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia.
  7. The Rough Guide calls him "a solo singer and producer since 1962." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 83. Wikipedia says the group broke up after Harriott emigrated to the United States. "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia.
  8. Harriott dates his first production session to 1960 at Federal, where he cut "What Can I Do (The Wedding Song)," which he counts among his biggest hits; Wikipedia calls "I Care" his first solo release and dates "What Can I Do" to 1964. Taylor, "Derrick Harriott (Part 1)." "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia. Harriott names "Stop That Train" and "The Loser" as the biggest records in his Crystal catalog. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Derrick Harriott (Part 2)," United Reggae, March 25, 2015, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1798/032515/interview-derrick-harriott-part-2
  9. The Rough Guide lists the Kingstonians, Dennis Brown, the Ethiopians, Junior Murvin, the Chosen Few, Rudy Mills, Scotty, and Keith & Tex among his artists, and Ray I and Winston McAnuff in the late 1970s. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 83-84, 102. Bradley lists Scotty's hits for him. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 299. Harriott says Keith & Tex brought him "Tonight" first and then "Stop That Train," cut with Lynn Taitt. Taylor, "Derrick Harriott (Part 2)."
  10. Bradley says his "spaghetti-western series" of Crystalites instrumentals, "the Undertaker songs," were skinhead favorites in Britain; the Rough Guide dates The Undertaker album to 1970. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 245; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 102.
  11. The Rough Guide calls it the album he produced for Brown "a couple of years after the young singer's Studio One debut." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 101-2.
  12. Bradley says Trojan had "two labels, Songbird and Explosion, each for some time dedicated to his output." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 245.
  13. The Rough Guide dates Scrub-a-Dub to 1974 and calls it "a fairly typical early dub album"; Bradley calls it and More Scrubbing the Dub "classic dub albums" built on his old rocksteady rhythms. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 231; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 330. Wikipedia says he was one of the first producers to use King Tubby's mixing and that the album was credited to the Crystalites. "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia.
  14. Wikipedia says Swing named him "the Top Producer of 1970" in 1971. "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia.
  15. Black, "Singing Groups Lose Lead Vocalists," which also says he later kept pace with younger dancehall audiences.
  16. Jovani Davis, "Derrick Harriott, Pioneering Jamaican Reggae Singer and Producer, Dies at 87," Caribbean National Weekly, October 24, 2026, https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/posts/derrick-harriott-pioneering-jamaican-reggae-singer-and-producer-dies-at-87. Wikipedia gives the same account, citing Colin Larkin's Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae. "Derrick Harriott," Wikipedia.
  17. Tim Perlich, "Ska Lessons," NOW Toronto, July 11, 2002, https://nowtoronto.com/music/ska-lessons/. The festival ran on July 12 and 13, with the Skatalites as house band; Harriott played the second night.
  18. The liner notes to Dubstore Records' Derrick Harriott Rock Steady 1966-1969 give 125 King Street and the year 1966. "Derrick Harriott Rock Steady 1966-1969," Dubstore Records, Bandcamp, accessed October 26, 2026, https://dubstorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/derrick-harriott-rock-steady-1966-1969.
  19. Harriott says he took over a record store on King Street, near Marley's shop on Beeston Street, that they were "good friends from the earlies," and that the Wailers played for him at the VIP Club in 1970. Taylor, "Derrick Harriott (Part 2)." The Observer says the friendship began in the late 1960s, when both ran record shops downtown. "Derrick Harriott Bats 86," Jamaica Observer, February 6, 2025, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/02/06/derrick-harriott-bats-86/.
  20. Davis, "Derrick Harriott, Pioneering Jamaican Reggae Singer," which names Dorrel Mattocks as the store's manager. Grange said he "nurtured talent and preserved our music" through his music and his store. "Derrick Harriott Shaped and Preserved Our Music – Grange," Jamaica Gleaner, October 26, 2026, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20261026/derrick-harriott-shaped-and-preserved-our-music-grange.
  21. The Observer dates the Order of Distinction to 2009. "Derrick Harriott Bats 86." Both awards are dated in Davis, "Derrick Harriott, Pioneering Jamaican Reggae Singer," and in "Derrick Harriott Shaped and Preserved Our Music."
  22. The Gleaner, quoting Dorrel Mattocks of the Derrick Harriott Music Store, says he "died at home about 1am Saturday" and that "He was 87"; the Observer says he "was 87 at the time of his passing." Yasmine Peru, "Derrick Harriott, Pioneering Reggae Singer and Producer, Has Died," Jamaica Gleaner, October 24, 2026, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20261024/derrick-harriott-pioneering-reggae-singer-and-producer-has-died; "Derrick Harriott, Celebrated Singer and Producer, Dead at 87," Jamaica Observer, October 24, 2026, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2026/10/24/derrick-harriott-celebrated-singer-producer-dead-87/.
  23. "Derrick Harriott Shaped and Preserved Our Music."

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