Jackie Edwards
Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae
- Active
- 1950s-1992
- Sunrise
- 1938
- Sunset
- August 15, 1992
- Also known as
- Wilfred Edwards, Wilfred "Jackie" Edwards
Wilfred "Jackie" Edwards was one of Jamaica's first recording stars, a honey-voiced balladeer and songwriter who followed Chris Blackwell to London and wrote two British number ones. The Gleaner called him "Jamaica's most accomplished balladeer."
He came up through the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, where Derrick Morgan won one night by imitating Little Richard against a field that included Edwards; fans fought for the honor of carrying his stage suit into the dressing room, and Morgan remembered him as "a very good Nat Cole singer." His "Tell Me Darling" was one of the first Jamaican solo ballads, and "Your Eyes Are Dreaming," "All My Days" and "One More Week" were among Blackwell's earliest productions.
When Blackwell moved Island to London he went too, writing and recording for the company; on Island's short-lived Aladdin label he covered songs by Jim Reeves and Bob Dylan. His songs for the Spencer Davis Group, "Keep On Running" and "Somebody Help Me," both reached number one in Britain in 1966 and helped move Island from ska toward soul and rock. He kept recording, for Sonia Pottinger and for Bunny Lee in the mid-1970s among others. He departed on August 15, 1992; the cause was a heart attack.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Bunny "Striker" Lee (producer)
- Sonia Pottinger (producer)
- Chris Blackwell (producer)
- Vere Johns (producer)
Notes
- Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 130; Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 27; Howard Campbell, "Jackie Edwards: A True Original," Jamaica Observer, April 27, 2012, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2012/04/26/jackie-edwards-a-true-original.
- "Wilfred 'Jackie' Edwards: An Unsung Hero of the '60s," Jamaica Gleaner, May 24, 2015, https://www.pressreader.com/jamaica/jamaica-gleaner/20150524/282123520101554.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 21; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 18, 19.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 21, 27. The Gleaner dates "Your Eyes Are Dreaming" to 1960. "Vintage Voices: Baritone Crooners, Rare Gems in Reggae," Jamaica Gleaner, November 10, 2019, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20191110/vintage-voices-baritone-crooners-rare-gems-reggae.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 130, 152; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 384.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 152; Campbell, "Jackie Edwards." "Keep On Running," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/spencer-davis-group-keep-on-running/; "Somebody Help Me," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/spencer-davis-group-somebody-help-me/.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 106, 153, 156.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 455, which gives natural causes; Campbell, "Jackie Edwards."
