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 Morgan

Artist. Ska, rocksteady

Active
1959-present
Sunrise
March 27, 1940, Mocho, Clarendon, Jamaica

Derrick Morgan was, for the Rough Guide, "the first star of ska," and he has recorded across ska, rocksteady, and reggae for more than six decades.

He won the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour as a teenager doing Little Richard impressions (on the road with Bim and Bam they called him Little Richard) and began recording in 1959. In 1962, the year of independence, he had seven records in the Jamaican top ten simultaneously, a record the Gleaner calls unlikely ever to be broken. "Forward March" was written for the independence celebrations and functioned as an unofficial anthem; "Housewife's Choice," a duet with Patsy Todd, was the biggest of the run.

His feud with Prince Buster started that year and produced the first sustained exchange of answer records in Jamaican music. Morgan had begun working for Leslie Kong, whom Buster considered an outsider muscling in, and Buster attacked him on "Blackhead Chiney Man." Morgan replied with "Blazing Fire," Buster came back, and fans took sides, chanting "Buster better than Derrick." Morgan says Edward Seaga suggested they "hug up and take pictures" outside the Gleaner. Both books say the two stayed friends in private.

As the music slowed he went with it. "Tougher Than Tough" (1967) is one of the founding rude boy records, cast as a courtroom scene, with Desmond Dekker singing harmony. Morgan has said that he wrote it for a Greenwich Farm rude boy called Busby, who demanded a song about himself and was shot dead the night after he first heard it played at a dance. "Seven Letters" is among the recordings sometimes named as the first true reggae single. "Moon Hop" (1970) was a hit with the British skinhead audience.

He continued recording through the 1970s and 1980s, including work with his brother-in-law Bunny Lee, and toured internationally into old age. Glaucoma has left him nearly blind, which has not stopped him performing.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls him "the first star of ska" and "the most popular singer of the day" at independence. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 30, 24. The Gleaner names Mocho, Clarendon. "Ska Great Derrick Morgan Shares the Secret to His 'Livity'," Jamaica Gleaner, March 27, 2022, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20220327/ska-great-derrick-morgan-shares-secret-his-livity.
  2. The Rough Guide says that in 1956 the fifteen-year-old Morgan beat Owen Gray, Jackie Edwards, Eric Morris, and Hortense Ellis in a talent contest at the Palace Theatre "by imitating Little Richard," and that the following year Bim & Bam took him touring as "Little Richie." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 19. The Gleaner and Wikipedia date his Vere Johns win to 1957. "Derrick Morgan the Guiding Hand of Popular Music," Jamaica Gleaner, February 26, 2012, http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120226/ent/ent2.html; "Derrick Morgan," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Morgan. Morgan himself told Augustyn in 1997 that he "started at the age of 17 at a talent show in Jamaica at the Palace Theater by imitating Little Richard," going on to tour with Bim and Bam: "That was in 1957." Heather Augustyn, "Ska Takes Center Stage at the Palace Theater," SkaBook (blog), September 27, 2013, https://skabook.com/2013/09/27/ska-takes-center-stage-palace-theater/. Angus Taylor, "Interview with Derrick Morgan: Blazing Fire," Reggaeville, November 11, 2018, https://reggaeville.com/artist-details/max-romeo/news/view/interview-with-derrick-morgan-blazing-fire.
  3. The Rough Guide describes his 1959 audition for Duke Reid and gives "Lover Boy" (Duke Reid) as his debut and "Fat Man" as his first sizable hit. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 14, 21. The Gleaner says "Fat Man" was released first, though "Lover Boy" was recorded first. "Derrick Morgan the Guiding Hand."
  4. The Rough Guide says that "at one time in 1962, he had seven records on Beverley's in the Jamaican radio Top Ten"; the Gleaner calls it "a record that is unlikely ever to be broken." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 33; "Derrick Morgan the Guiding Hand." Wikipedia puts it in 1960. "Derrick Morgan," Wikipedia.
  5. The Rough Guide lists "Forward March" with "Independent Jamaica" and "Miss Jamaica" as celebratory independence records. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 3, 34. Bradley says it was "massive." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 105.
  6. The Rough Guide says the song, first titled "You Don't Know," drew so many requests from women listeners that it was renamed, and calls it "one of the most popular of his entire career"; it was recorded by Derrick & Patsy (Derrick Morgan and Millicent Todd) for Beverley's. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 33, 35. A compilation listing elsewhere in the book credits "Housewives Choice" to "Stranger & Patsy." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 30.
  7. Bradley says such "seven-inch battles would become a regular feature of the Jamaican music industry." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 106. Dodd and Prince Buster had already traded records, including "Prince Pharaoh." Roy Black, "Prince Buster a Musical Gladiator," Jamaica Gleaner, September 25, 2016, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20160925/roy-black-prince-buster-musical-gladiator.
  8. Bradley says Buster resented Kong, "a Chinese-Jamaican," moving into the business and believed "Forward March" "ripped off one of his tunes"; the Rough Guide says Buster claimed Headley Bennett's alto solo on it copied Lester Stirling's on his own record, and that Morgan took Kong songs worked out in Buster's shop. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 105; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34. Roy Black says Kong "was paying twice as much." Black, "Prince Buster a Musical Gladiator."
  9. The Rough Guide names Buster's "No Raise, No Praise" and "Watch It Blackhead" as later rounds, and Bradley adds "Thirty Pieces of Silver"; both say the two stayed friends in private. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 106. Wikipedia says that as followers of the two clashed, "the government had to step in with a staged photo shoot depicting the rivals as friends." "Derrick Morgan," Wikipedia. Buster told the Sunday Gleaner in 1964 that he and Morgan had launched their records "deriding each other" as "a promotional stunt." "Dissension in the Ska Camp," Sunday Gleaner, April 26, 1964, reprinted in Heather Augustyn, "Dissension in the Ska Camp," SkaBook (blog), January 17, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/01/17/dissension-ska-camp/. Taylor, "Interview with Derrick Morgan."
  10. The Rough Guide says "Tougher Than Tough" was "recorded in January 1967" and "set in a court room," the first of a trilogy of rude-boy singles. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 60. Bradley counts it among the records that were "more musical accolades to rude boy-ism than bona fide replies." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 190. On Dekker's guest vocal and Lynn Taitt's backing, David Katz, "Desmond Dekker," Guardian, May 27, 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/may/27/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries; David Katz, "Nearlin 'Lyn' Taitt Obituary," Guardian, February 10, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/feb/10/nearlin-lynn-taitt-obituary.
  11. Morgan's account, from Augustyn's Ska: An Oral History, quoted in Heather Augustyn, "Rude Boy Busbie and Derrick Morgan," SkaBook (blog), June 3, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/06/03/rude-boy-busbie/: "That was a Friday night and he died on the Saturday night." Augustyn adds that drinkers smashed bottles on hearing "strong like lion, we are iron," and that the record was banned from the radio.
  12. Wikipedia says the Bunny Lee production "is often cited as the first true reggae single." "Derrick Morgan," Wikipedia.
  13. Bradley lists "Moon Hop" among the skinhead market's "lower-profile big sellers." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 242. Wikipedia dates it to 1969 and gives a UK peak of number 49. "Derrick Morgan," Wikipedia.
  14. The Rough Guide lists Morgan among Bunny Lee's hitmakers in the early 1970s. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 103. The Gleaner says that by the turn of the decade he had also started his own Hop label. "Derrick Morgan the Guiding Hand." On Lee as Morgan's brother-in-law, David Katz, "Bunny Lee Obituary," Guardian, October 9, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/09/bunny-lee-obituary.
  15. The Gleaner says he has had an eye defect from birth and wrote three Festival songs between 1998 and 2002 "while visually impaired." "Derrick Morgan the Guiding Hand." Wikipedia says failing eyesight forced him to give up regular stage appearances. "Derrick Morgan," Wikipedia. In 2018 he said he was born with retinitis pigmentosa, and that this was why he was sent to Kingston as a child: Taylor, "Interview with Derrick Morgan."

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