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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Harry J

Producer. Reggae

Active
1968-2013
Sunrise
July 6, 1945, Westmoreland, Jamaica
Sunset
April 3, 2013, Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, Jamaica (diabetes)
Also recorded as
Harry J All Stars
Also known as
Harry J Studio, Harry Johnson

Harry Zephaniah Johnson, known as Harry J, produced the record widely credited as the first reggae single and then built the studio where Bob Marley made his first four albums for Island.

He was born in Westmoreland, played bass with a band called the Virtues, managed them, and after they split worked as an insurance salesman. In 1968 he booked time at Studio One under an arrangement with Coxsone Dodd and recorded the Beltones' "No More Heartaches," issuing it on his own Harry J label. Lloyd Robinson's "Cuss Cuss" followed in 1969 and became one of the most versioned riddims in Jamaican music.

The instrumental sides credited to the Harry J All Stars did the rest. That name was not a band. It was the billing Johnson put on instrumentals cut by whichever session players he had booked, the same pool that recorded for every other producer in Kingston under other names, and they were billed at times as the Jay Boys. "Liquidator," released in 1969, reached number nine on the British singles chart and became an anthem of the skinhead audience and later of several football crowds. Who played on it is not settled. The fullest account, in John Masouri's biography of Aston Barrett, puts the core of the Hippy Boys on it, Aston Barrett on bass, Carlton Barrett on drums, and Alva Lewis on guitar, with Winston Wright on organ; a Gleaner account of Johnson's sessions instead names Hux Brown, Gladstone Anderson, Jackie Jackson, and Val Bennett. Bennett's saxophone is on a variant issued as "Tons of Gold." Wright's organ line carries the record either way, and he played on "No More Heartaches" as well.

The riddim may not have started as Johnson's at all. Carlton Barrett said it was cut for a Tony Scott song, "What Am I to Do," and that Johnson bought the rights, licensed the track to Trojan, and credited it to the All Stars; Alton Ellis said the core of it was lifted from his "Girl I've Got a Date." Trojan gave Johnson his own imprint and he ran a second label, Jaywax. Further All Stars singles followed, including versions of "My Cherie Amour" and "Je T'Aime," none of which repeated the success. In 1970 he produced Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths singing "Young, Gifted and Black," which reached the British top five, and the duo's "Pied Piper" reached number eleven.

In the early 1970s he sold his record shop and opened a sixteen-track studio at 10 Roosevelt Avenue, at a time when Kingston was still working in two and four tracks. Sid Bucknor was the first engineer; Sylvan Morris, who had built Studio One's sound, replaced him when Bucknor left for England. Bob Marley and the Wailers made their first four Island albums here, though not exclusively: Catch a Fire was cut across Dynamic, Randy's, and Harry J's, Burnin' and Natty Dread at Harry J's, and Rastaman Vibration split between Harry J's and Joe Gibbs. The Heptones' "Book of Rules," the Melodians' "Sweet Sensation," Toots and the Maytals' "Reggae Got Soul," and sessions for Burning Spear, Dennis Brown, and Augustus Pablo were done in the same room, and the studio appears in Rockers, in the scene where Kiddus I records "Graduation in Zion" during a Jack Ruby session.

Johnson spent years trying to get compensation for "Liquidator," whose opening bass figure turns up at the head of the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There." Al Jackson of Booker T. and the MGs had visited Kingston in 1969 and been handed two copies of the record; Johnson recognized his own introduction on the radio three years later. He got nowhere. The studio went dark for most of the 1990s and reopened in 2000, refurbished and run by Stephen Stewart with Johnson keeping ownership of the building; it remains in use. He departed in Westmoreland in April 2013; the cause was complications from diabetes.

Last updated October 23, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Observer and Billboard both say the Wailers recorded their first four Island albums at Harry J's. "Producer Harry J Dead at 68," Jamaica Observer, April 5, 2013, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2013/04/05/producer-harry-j-dead-at-68/; Patricia Meschino, "Harry Johnson, Legendary Jamaican Producer of Harry J Studios Credited with First Reggae Single, Dead at 67," Billboard, April 8, 2013, https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/harry-johnson-legendary-jamaican-producer-of-harry-j-studios-1556621/.
  2. Billboard says he was a bass player with the Virtues, then their manager, and then an insurance salesman. Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  3. The Rough Guide says Johnson hired time at Studio One "early in 1968" and that "No More Heartaches" "arguably launched the new phase of Jamaican music." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 113. Bradley says the record shares the distinction of being the first reggae record with Larry Marshall's "Nanny Goat," though he calls it "essentially a rocksteady record dressed up in some flashy new clothes." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 200-201. The Observer dates the Harry J label to 1966. "Producer Harry J Dead at 68."
  4. The Rough Guide says "Cuss Cuss" was also recorded at Studio One and calls it "Harry J's most enduring rhythm." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 113.
  5. Bradley says Johnson built "a string of bubbling instrumental by Harry J All-Stars or the Jay Boys (essentially the same personnel)" around the keyboards of Winston Wright and Winston Blake. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226. Billboard calls the All Stars "a revolving cast of musicians." Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  6. Bradley says "The Liquidator" was Top 10 in November 1969, still at number 17 on November 15, and "is still played at Wolverhampton Wanderers' home games." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226, 241-42. Billboard gives its peak as number 9. Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  7. Bradley calls it a "Winston Wright-organ workout" and does not name the Barretts. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 241. Billboard names Gladstone Anderson, Winston Wright, Jackie Jackson, Winston Grennan, and Hux Brown among the All Stars. Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  8. The Rough Guide lists Val Bennett's "Tons Of Gold" (aka "Return Of the Liquidator") and Tony Scott's vocal "What Am I To Do" as other cuts of the rhythm. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 113.
  9. Bradley says Wright "found regular employment with Harry Johnson" and played on the Studio One sessions that produced "No More Heartaches." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 201.
  10. The Rough Guide confirms only that Tony Scott's "What Am I To Do" is a vocal cut of the same rhythm. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 113.
  11. Bradley says the run included a "Je t'aime (moi non plus)" that "somehow managed to stay on the right side of cheesy." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226.
  12. Bradley says Johnson "paired Bob Andy with Marcia Griffiths" for "Young, Gifted and Black" and "Pied Piper," "although Andy himself produced the latter single," and that Trojan's orchestrated issue of "Young, Gifted and Black" was "a Top 5 hit." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226, 244. The Rough Guide counts both records among Johnson's international successes. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 113.
  13. Billboard dates the sixteen-track studio at 10 Roosevelt Avenue to 1972 and quotes Stephen Stewart: "Back then, we were recording two-track and four-track sessions." Meschino, "Harry Johnson." Bradley, however, says the Wailers' "Trench Town Rock," the island's best-selling single of 1971, was produced by Marley "at Harry J's studios." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 345.
  14. The Rough Guide says Sylvan Morris moved to Harry Johnson's studio in the mid-1970s, where he worked on Burning Spear's Dry & Heavy and mixed dub sides. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 233, 235.
  15. The Rough Guide says Catch a Fire was made "at the Harry J, Dynamic and Randy's studios." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 137. Bradley names only Harry J's and Randy's. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 414.
  16. Billboard lists the Heptones' "Book of Rules," the Melodians' "Sweet Sensation," the Maytals' "Reggae Got Soul," Burning Spear's "Days of Slavery," and Dennis Brown's "So Long Rastafari" among records made there, and describes the Rockers scene with Kiddus I. Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  17. The Observer says the opening riff "inspired" "I'll Take You There"; Billboard, citing a 2000 Observer interview, says Al Jackson visited Kingston in 1969 and was given a copy of "Liquidator," and that Johnson "took aggressive steps to collect royalties." "Producer Harry J Dead at 68." Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  18. Billboard says the studio reopened in 2000 after "a seven-year dormancy," managed by Stephen Stewart, with Johnson keeping ownership of the premises. Meschino, "Harry Johnson."
  19. Billboard says he died on April 3, 2013, in Westmoreland, of complications from diabetes; the Observer names Savanna-la-Mar Hospital. Meschino, "Harry Johnson." "Producer Harry J Dead at 68."

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