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 →

Desmond Dekker

Artist. Ska, rocksteady

Active
1963-2006
Sunrise
July 16, 1941, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
May 25, 2006, Thornton Heath, England (heart attack)

Desmond Adolphus Dacres had the first international reggae hit, and for a few years in the late 1960s he was the most famous Jamaican musician in the world.

He was raised as an orphan, spending much of his youth in Seaforth, St. Thomas, and was working as a welder in Kingston when he began auditioning. Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid both turned him down. He passed an audition at Leslie Kong's Beverley's, conducted by Derrick Morgan, and Kong signed him in 1961 and produced everything he recorded for the next decade, though he waited two years before recording him. It was Dekker who brought a fellow welder, the young Bob Marley, to Kong. "Honour Your Mother and Father" (1963) was the first release.

The Aces, his backing vocal group, were Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard. They are a separate group from the Pioneers, with whom they are frequently confused.

"007 (Shanty Town)" (1967) is a rude boy record and reached number fourteen in Britain, the first Jamaican single to make a serious impression on the British charts without being marketed as a novelty. "Israelites" followed in 1968: a lyric about a working man who cannot make his wages stretch, set to a rhythm that gave nothing away to English-speaking listeners who could not make out a word of it. It reached number one in Britain in April 1969 and number nine in the United States, the first Jamaican record to do either. What carried the records was the voice. Rolling Stone called him "silver-voiced," and his early hits for Kong, among them "Honour Your Mother and Father" and "Sinners Come Home," were sung in what The Times called his trademark falsetto; from "007" on, he gave voice to the rude boys of downtown Kingston, and Toots Hibbert remembered him as very soulful and a very good songwriter.

"It Mek" and Jimmy Cliff's "You Can Get It If You Really Want" followed. Kong's sunset in 1971 removed the working relationship the whole career had rested on, and Dekker never had another hit on that scale. He moved to Britain and kept touring, and a 1975 reissue of "Israelites" charted again, as did a 1990s revival.

He departed at his home in Thornton Heath, south London, on May 25, 2006, at sixty-four, with performances booked; the cause was a heart attack.

Last updated October 31, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says that "before the international success of Marley, Desmond Dekker was the pop face of reggae." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 61. It gives his birth year as 1942. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34.
  2. David Katz says he was "raised as an orphan," grew up partly in St. Thomas, and trained as a welder on returning to Kingston in his late teens. David Katz, "Desmond Dekker," Guardian, May 26, 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/may/27/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries. The Rough Guide calls him "a welder by trade." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34. Augustyn says that after his mother died he attended Alpha Boys School, since his father could not raise him, and that his fellow workers urged him to sing. Heather Augustyn, "Lost Chapter of Ska: An Oral History," SkaBook (blog), November 30, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/11/30/lost-chapter-of-ska-an-oral-history/, a chapter written for her Ska: An Oral History with Dekker's manager, Delroy Williams.
  3. Katz says that in 1961 "approaches to Duke Reid and Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd led nowhere." Katz, "Desmond Dekker."
  4. Katz says Dekker passed an audition at Beverley's "conducted by popular singer Derrick Morgan," but that Kong delayed recording him. Katz, "Desmond Dekker." Augustyn has him auditioning before Morgan and Jimmy Cliff, with Theophilus Beckford at the piano, and signing in 1961. Augustyn, "Lost Chapter." The Rough Guide quotes Morgan, then Beverley's A&R man: "I 'ave Desmond Dekker in a Beverley's fi two years straight before 'im sing a tune." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34. Bradley says Kong died of a heart attack in 1971. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 225.
  5. Katz: "Dekker spotted the talent of Marley, a fellow welder, and brought the youth to Kong's attention." Katz, "Desmond Dekker." Augustyn says Marley had already been turned away by Kong once. Augustyn, "Lost Chapter."
  6. The Rough Guide dates "Honour Your Mother and Father" to 1963. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 34. Augustyn says it was issued as by "Desmond Dekker & Beverly's Allstars," Kong having suggested the change of name; Katz calls "King of Ska" "the first release credited to Dekker under his stage name." Augustyn, "Lost Chapter"; Katz, "Desmond Dekker."
  7. The Rough Guide names Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 61. Katz says the group began as the Four Aces, four Howard brothers, and that later recordings feature just two, Barry Howard and Wilson James. Katz, "Desmond Dekker." Augustyn names the Four Aces as Clive Campbell, Easton Barrington Howard, Wilson James and Patrick Johnson. Augustyn, "Lost Chapter."
  8. The Rough Guide says "007" charted in the UK and the US in the summer of 1967; Wikipedia gives a UK peak of number 14. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 61; "Desmond Dekker," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Dekker.
  9. Katz says the song, titled "Poor Me Israelites" in Jamaica, "described the hardships of poverty," and notes British "confusion over its lyrics due to Dekker's use of patois." Katz, "Desmond Dekker." The Rough Guide glosses its subject as "exile." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 61.
  10. Bradley calls it "the first reggae number 1" and says it "shot to the top a mere eight months after it was released," after the BBC had first refused to play it. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 241. The Rough Guide says it reached number 9 in the US and was "the first Jamaican-recorded song to break into the US chart," though it also says "007" had charted in the US in 1967. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 107, 61. Wikipedia dates the UK number one to April 1969 and the US peak to June 1969. "Desmond Dekker," Wikipedia. Masouri: "the first Jamaican recording to top the UK charts," and "the first Jamaican record to manage a Top 10 placing on Billboard's Hot 100," with a million copies sold worldwide within a year. John Masouri, liner notes to Desmond Dekker, Intensified (Charly Records BLP004), excerpt posted as "Desmond Dekker - Intensified (Charly Records BLP004)," John Masouri, December 6, 2025, https://www.johnmasouri.com/single-post/desmond-dekker-intensified-charly-records-blp004.
  11. "Desmond Dekker (1942-2006)," Rolling Stone, accessed October 31, 2026, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/desmond-dekker-1942-2006-112298/, which quotes Hibbert; The Times (London) obituary, reproduced in "Spectropop Remembers Desmond Dekker," Spectropop, accessed October 31, 2026, https://spectropop.com/remembers/DesmondDekker.htm.
  12. Wikipedia gives "It Mek" a UK peak of number 7 in 1969. "Desmond Dekker," Wikipedia. Bradley lists Dekker's "You Can Get It If You Really Want" among the reggae records that were "Top 20 pop hits" in Britain. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 242.
  13. Katz says that after Kong died, Dekker "moved to the UK but hits were not forthcoming." Katz, "Desmond Dekker." Bradley names him among the artists who "settled in England on the back of their success." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 249.
  14. Wikipedia says the 1975 reissue of "Israelites" reached number 10 in the UK, and that a 1990 Maxell advertisement using the song brought him back to public attention. "Desmond Dekker," Wikipedia. Katz also credits a 1975 hit, "Sing a Little Song," and says "a new version of Israelites" revived him in 1990. Katz, "Desmond Dekker."
  15. Katz says he died of a heart attack aged sixty-four, shortly after agreeing to sing "The Israelites" at Artangel's Margate Exodus project that September. Katz, "Desmond Dekker."

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