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 →

Errol Dunkley

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1967-present
Sunrise
1951, Kingston, Jamaica

Errol Dunkley began recording as a child and had his biggest hit at twenty-eight.

He cut "My Queen" for Prince Buster around 1964, when he was twelve or thirteen, and followed it with "You're Gonna Need Me" for Joe Gibbs. His "Please Stop Your Lying," made as a teenager, was one of the first releases on Joe Gibbs's Amalgamated label and an important hit.

By 1970 he and Gregory Isaacs had founded the African Museum label and record shop, whose first releases included his "Movie Star." The label came to be remembered as Isaacs's. He recorded for Coxsone Dodd, Sonia Pottinger, and Rupie Edwards through the decade, and "Movie Star" and "Black Cinderella" were substantial Jamaican hits.

"OK Fred," written by John Holt and recut by Dunkley in 1979, reached number eleven in Britain and became his biggest seller. He moved to England and has performed there and in Europe since.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Roy Black, who interviewed Dunkley, dates "My Queen" to 1962, when Dunkley was eleven; Angus Taylor also says he first voiced for Buster "aged just 11." Roy Black, "The Music Diaries: Errol Dunkley at It from an Early Age," Jamaica Gleaner, January 21, 2018, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20180121/music-diaries-errol-dunkley-it-early-age-made-his-first-record-11; Angus Taylor, "Interview: Errol Dunkley," United Reggae, November 5, 2014, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1654/110514/interview-errol-dunkley. The Rough Guide gives his birth year as 1951. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 76.
  2. Taylor dates "You're Gonna Need Me" to 1967 and says Bunny Lee brought Dunkley to Gibbs. Taylor, "Interview: Errol Dunkley." The Rough Guide names the teenage Dunkley's "Please Stop Your Lying" among the first releases on Gibbs's Amalgamated label in 1967. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 76. Bradley says Graeme Goodall's Rio label released some of his earliest material in Britain. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 129.
  3. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 76.
  4. Dunkley told Black that "me and Gregory Isaacs formed the African Museum label and I had a big success with Movie Star"; he told Taylor the first releases were "Movie Star, Look Before You Leap, My Only Lover." Black, "Errol Dunkley at It from an Early Age." Taylor, "Interview: Errol Dunkley." Katz: "By 1970 he [Isaacs] had formed the independent label African Museum with a fellow singer, Errol Dunkley," finding "instant success with Dunkley's Movie Star." David Katz, "Gregory Isaacs Obituary," Guardian, October 25, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/25/gregory-isaacs-obituary.
  5. The Rough Guide treats African Museum as Isaacs's label. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 195, 197.
  6. Dunkley told Black that Leroy Sibbles took him to Coxsone but that "many of my songs were never released," and that he went on to Bunny Lee and Rupie Edwards. Black, "Errol Dunkley at It from an Early Age." The Rough Guide lists him among the singers who recorded for Sonia Pottinger after Studio One, and praises his "Darling Ooh" for Rupie Edwards. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105, 116. Katz says Pottinger licensed his debut album, "which yielded the lasting hit Darling Ooh," and that Robbie Shakespeare's first bass session was Dunkley's "I'll Be Back" for Pottinger in 1972. David Katz, "Sonia Pottinger Obituary," Guardian, November 18, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/18/sonia-pottinger-obituary; David Katz, "Robbie Shakespeare Married Funk and Reggae to Create a Catalogue of Classics," Guardian, December 9, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/09/robbie-shakespeare-married-funk-and-reggae-to-create-a-catalogue-of-classics.
  7. Taylor says "Black Cinderella" was produced by Jimmy Radway, with Dunkley rewriting Radway's lyric; Black calls it perhaps his most popular recording of the period. Taylor, "Interview: Errol Dunkley." Black, "Errol Dunkley at It from an Early Age."
  8. Wikipedia says Holt's original, a Coxsone Dodd production from 1971, did not chart in Britain, while Dunkley's version reached number 11 in 1979 and stayed on the chart for eleven weeks. "OK Fred," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_Fred.
  9. Black says he migrated to England in the mid-1970s; Dunkley told Taylor he went there in the 1970s under contract to the "Shelly Recording company." Black, "Errol Dunkley at It from an Early Age." Taylor, "Interview: Errol Dunkley." The Rough Guide notes "a few records in London worthy of his talent," including his 1978 remake of "A Little Way Different." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 386, 389.

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