Linval Cooper
Artist. Reggae
- Active
- 1970s-1980s
- Also known as
- Linton Cooper
Linval Cooper is a Jamaican singer whose traceable recorded output under that name consists of one Studio One release, the twelve-inch "Happy Birthday" backed with "Wicked Man." Pressings carry a 1978 date, though the A-side is sometimes given as 1971.
The record is scarce and has circulated mainly through the collector market and reissue listings; original copies have sold in the hundreds of dollars. No birth date, birthplace or other biographical detail for Cooper could be verified. He is probably the Linton Cooper credited as writer of both sides, who recorded "You'll Get Your Pay" for Dodd's Money Disc label around 1975; Money Disc pressings of "Happy Birthday" credit "Linval Coper," and the name looks like a label variant rather than a pseudonym. He belongs to the large body of singers who cut one or two sides at Brentford Road and left no other documentary trace.
Last updated October 22, 2026
Connections
- Studio One (studio)
Notes
- Discogs lists the 1978 Studio One twelve-inch under the name Linval Cooper, with Clement "Coxsone" Dodd as producer and Linton Cooper as writer of both sides, and also lists Jamaican seven-inch pressings of "Happy Birthday" on Dodd's Money Disc label credited to "Linval Coper." "Linval Cooper, Happy Birthday / Wicked Man," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3328699; "Linval Coper, Happy Birthday / Birthday Dub," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4448463. A 1975 UK cover by Johnny Jonas, produced by Eddy Grant for Torpedo, credits the song to Linton Cooper, which places it before 1978. "Johnny Jonas, Happy Birthday," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3673051.
- Discogs treats Linval Cooper as a variant of Linton Cooper and credits Linton Cooper as writer of both sides of the Studio One twelve-inch; the Jamaican seven-inch on Money Disc spells the singer "Linval Coper." "Linton Cooper," artist page, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/173486; "Linval Cooper, Happy Birthday / Wicked Man"; "Linval Coper, Happy Birthday / Birthday Dub." The Rough Guide singles out "Linton Cooper's driving 'You'll Get Your Pay'" among the obscure tracks on Soul Jazz's Studio One Roots; Discogs dates that single to 1975, on Money Disc. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 136; "Linton Cooper, You'll Get Your Pay / Deeds," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3453243. No source found states outright that the two names belong to one singer, and none suggests a pseudonym.
