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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Earl Sixteen

Artist. Reggae, roots

Active
1970s-present
Sunrise
May 9, 1958, Kingston, Jamaica
Also known as
Earl 16, Earl Daley, Earl John Daley, Flaming Phonics

Earl Sixteen is a roots singer whose reputation, in the Rough Guide's view, rests mainly on the singles he cut between 1975 and 1980 for Lee Perry, Augustus Pablo, Derrick Harriott, Joe Gibbs and Mikey Dread.

He grew up around Waltham Park Road in Kingston, the son of a man who built and played instruments, learned falsetto from a friend at church, and wanted a range like Michael Jackson's. He went to school with Michael Rose and Winston McAnuff and won the Bohemia Club talent contest in his teens. His first record, "Leggo Off of That," was made with Alphonso Bailey, and his group the Flaming Phonics cut "Hey Baby" for Herman Chin-Loy at Aquarius. McAnuff wrote "Malcolm X," which Sixteen voiced for Joe Gibbs and then for Derrick Harriott; Dennis Brown later had a hit with it.

Boris Gardiner took him from the group as lead singer of the Boris Gardiner Happening, a hotel-circuit band, and the band members named him Sixteen for his age. According to Bradley, Gardiner later sacked him for coming on stage with dreadlocks showing under his hat. Through Gardiner he reached Lee Perry, who released his "Freedom," and through Hugh Mundell and the Twelve Tribes of Israel he joined Augustus Pablo's circle. At Studio One his "Love Is a Feeling" and "No Mash Up the Dance" became hits, and his mid-1980s Studio One album was, for the Rough Guide, the nearest he came to a fully satisfying LP. He also made albums for Roy Cousins, Earl Morgan of the Heptones and Mikey Dread, and voiced songs for Linval Thompson.

Sixteen settled in England in 1988, worked with Mad Professor, and has recorded steadily since for labels across Europe, with guest spots for Leftfield and Damon Albarn.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 264, 265.
  2. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Earl 16 (2014, Part 1)," United Reggae, August 15, 2014, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1579/081514/interview-earl-16-2014-part-1.
  3. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Earl 16 (2014, Part 1)," United Reggae, August 15, 2014, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1579/081514/interview-earl-16-2014-part-1.
  4. Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 1)." Dennis Brown's version: "Earl Sixteen," Wikipedia, accessed October 6, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Sixteen (thinly sourced).
  5. Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 1)."
  6. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 289. Sixteen's own account of his time with the band does not mention a sacking. Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 1)."
  7. Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 1)." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 178; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 365.
  8. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 265; Angus Taylor, "Interview: Earl 16 (2014, Part 2)," United Reggae, August 20, 2014, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1594/082014/interview-earl-16-2014-part-2.
  9. Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 2)." The Rough Guide names Sixteen among the hard roots singers Mikey Dread produced. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 238.
  10. Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 2)." Taylor, "Earl 16 (Part 1)." The Rough Guide lists him among the veterans who recorded for Britain's Jah Warrior label. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 416.

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