World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

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 →

Jackie Opel

Artist. Ska

Active
1962-1970
Sunrise
August 27, 1937 or 1938, Bridgetown, Barbados
Sunset
March 9, 1970, Bridgetown, Barbados (road accident)

Dalton Sinclair Bishop, who performed as Jackie Opel, was a Barbadian singer who spent most of his recording career in Jamaica. He was born in Bridgetown and was known in both islands as the Jackie Wilson of the Caribbean, a comparison that referred as much to his dancing as to his voice.

Byron Lee heard him in Barbados and brought him to Jamaica in about 1962, where he sang with the Dragonaires and then joined the Skatalites as a vocalist, occasionally playing bass when Lloyd Brevett was unavailable. He wrote a number of the band's vocal sides and shared arranging duties with Roland Alphonso.

He recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and for Justin Yap's Top Deck, cutting "Cry Me a River," "You're No Good," "Old Rockin' Chair," "Push Wood," and "More Wood in the Fire," and sang duets with Doreen Shaffer and Hortense Ellis. In 1964 Bob Marley and Peter Tosh backed him on "Mill Man," "Hairy Mango," and "A Time to Cry." After the Skatalites split he worked with the Mighty Vikings.

His delivery drew on American soul and gospel (Howard Campbell writes of "soul-drenched vocals," and Bunny Wailer ranked him among the best singers he had heard), and his stage act made him one of the most sought-after live performers on the island. He moved to Trinidad and then home to Barbados, where with his band the Troubadours he developed spouge, a Barbadian style built from elements of ska and calypso and Barbados's answer to both. He lost his life in a road accident on Lower Bay Street in Bridgetown on March 9, 1970, before the form he had started could develop under him.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls him "the very gifted Bajan singer," but a page later refers to "his Trinidadian nationality." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 43, 44. The Guardian calls him Barbadian and gives his birth year as 1938. Richard Godwin, "Let's Spouge! Discover the Funky Joy of the Greatest Forgotten Music Genre," Guardian, February 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/28/spouge-forgotten-music-genre-jackie-opel-barbados.
  2. Wikipedia calls him the "Jackie Wilson of Barbadian culture." "Jackie Opel," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Opel. The Guardian says others remembered him as "the closest thing the Caribbean had to James Brown." Godwin, "Let's Spouge!"
  3. The Guardian says Byron Lee talent-spotted him and that he "sang with the Skatalites and became a Studio One regular." Godwin, "Let's Spouge!" The Rough Guide lists him among the band's featured singers. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 42.
  4. The Rough Guide: "Roland Alphonso and the very gifted Bajan singer Jackie Opel were credited with many of the arrangements." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 43.
  5. The Rough Guide lists Studio One collections of his work and praises "the ten Justin Yap-produced offerings" on A Love To Share; it also notes that Vincent Chin produced him at Randy's, and singles out his "excellent double-entendre 'Push Wood.'" Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 44, 46, 40. Wikipedia's discography lists British issues of "You're No Good," "Cry Me A River," "Old Rocking Chair," and "More Wood In The Fire" in 1964 and 1965. "Jackie Opel."
  6. The Rough Guide lists "Jackie (Opel) & Doreen (Schaffer)" among the ska duos. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 35. Wikipedia lists "Stand by Me" with Hortense Ellis. "Jackie Opel."
  7. Wikipedia. "Jackie Opel." The Rough Guide singles out his "brilliant 'Mill Man'" on a Studio One collection of the Wailers' early work. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 39.
  8. The Rough Guide attributes his neglect to "his tendency to sing in an American r&b/soul style." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 44. Brent Dowe recalls that at Coxsone's yard in 1965, "Jackie Opel was the only one-man singer." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 70. The Guardian says he "performed handstands on stage." Godwin, "Let's Spouge!" Howard Campbell, "Jackie Opel: Barbados Soul Brother," Jamaica Observer, February 18, 2018, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2018/02/18/jackie-opel-barbados-soul-brother.
  9. The Guardian dates his return to Barbados to 1968 and says he devised spouge with the Troubadours, "the house band of the Clyde B Jones funeral parlour," and the drummer Ken Jones. Godwin, "Let's Spouge!"
  10. Wikipedia gives the date and place of the crash. "Jackie Opel." The Guardian says he died at thirty-two, having made only two spouge recordings. Godwin, "Let's Spouge!" The Nation gave 1937 in 2021 and 1938 in 2024; the Guardian also gives 1938. "First National Day in Remembrance of Jackie Opel," Nation News (Barbados), August 26, 2021, https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/26/first-national-day-remembrance-jackie-opel/. Natanga Smith, "Singers Pay Tribute to Jackie Opel," Nation News (Barbados), August 30, 2024, https://nationnews.com/?p=319594.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map