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 →

Freddy McKay

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae, roots

Active
1960s-1986
Sunrise
1947, St. Catherine, Jamaica
Sunset
1986
Also known as
Freddie McKay

Freddy McKay was a gritty, soulful singer whom the Rough Guide calls "criminally underrated," a man who never achieved the consistent success his talent deserved. Songlines, reviewing the reissue of Creation, heard "a powerful, but intimate and gloriously soulful voice."

Born in St. Catherine in 1947, he recorded for Prince Buster and then had his first hit, "Love Is a Treasure," for Duke Reid at Treasure Isle. At Studio One, backed by the Soul Defenders, he had a massive hit with "Picture on the Wall," taped by Larry Marshall, and followed it with "High School Dance"; it was among the hits that kept Coxsone Dodd in touch with the new reggae beat. The song lived on: Cedric Brooks cut it as an instrumental, and Leroy Gibbons and Dillinger's "Bruk Camera," Steely & Clevie's first release, updated it. In 1974 he made Lonely Man at Dynamic for Warwick Lyn and Neville Hinds.

In the roots era his biggest hit was the Festival song "Dance This Ya Festival" for Channel One, and he cut tunes for Sly and Robbie, Phil Pratt, Tommy Cowan and Jimmy Cliff before producing himself on a string of obscure labels. He also made albums for Alvin Ranglin and Ossie Hibbert, and in the early 1980s for Linval Thompson, over Roots Radics riddims. He departed in the mid-1980s, robbing Jamaican music, in the Rough Guide's words, of "one of its most distinguished and soulful vocalists."

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 92, 95, 199.
  2. Review of Freddie McKay, Creation, Songlines, accessed November 5, 2026, https://songlines.co.uk/review/creation-0.
  3. Angus Taylor, "Freddie McKay: Tribal Inna Yard," United Reggae, March 9, 2013, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n1278/030913/freddie-mckay-tribal-inna-yard. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 65, 92.
  4. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 89, 92, 95, 97; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 349.
  5. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 92, 310.
  6. Taylor, "Freddie McKay: Tribal Inna Yard." The Rough Guide credits the 1974 set to the partnership of Warwick Lyn and Neville Hinds. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 95.
  7. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 157, 199.
  8. Taylor, "Freddie McKay: Tribal Inna Yard." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 288.
  9. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200. United Reggae gives 1986 and a heart attack. Taylor, "Freddie McKay: Tribal Inna Yard."

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