Little John
Artist. Dancehall, reggae
- Active
- 1970s-present
- Sunrise
- Kingston
- Also known as
- John McMorris, Romantic
Little John (John McMorris) was the child star of early dancehall, one of the two singers, with Sammy Dread, whom the Rough Guide takes as the definition of the dancehall vocalist: a performer who could put new lyrics over any vintage riddim and deliver them with roughhouse energy.
Before he reached his teens he was a sound-system sensation, and he carried onto record the excitement he made on the Romantic Hi-Fi sound. At nine he was the uncredited voice on Captain Sinbad's "51 Storm" for Sugar Minott's label, and "Robe," his second record, was made for Don Mais's Roots Tradition label with the musicians who were becoming the Roots Radics; "What Is Catty," a precocious take on U-Roy's "Big Boy and Teacher," and "Gun Fever," with Ranking Toyan, came from the same sessions, and he was one of the voices on Mais's rebuilt "Never Let Go."
He went on to cut, by the Rough Guide's count, a couple of hundred 45s. Through the 1980s he recorded at the revitalized Channel One, for Jah Thomas's Midnight Rock, and for George Phang's Powerhouse, where Sly and Robbie's riddim under his revival of the Silvertones' "True Confession" (1984) made one of his best records. He voiced "Tickle Me," one of the first releases on King Tubby's Firehouse label in 1985, and his sound-clash "Fade Away," a soundboy version of Junior Byles's roots song, came from Tubby's last album; he also recorded for Winston Riley, King Jammy and Steely and Clevie. Singers like him, Minott and Sammy Dread, who sang over exclusive riddims the way the deejays chatted, were the model for British sound-system singers such as Maxi Priest. He later ran his own Romantic label.
Last updated October 14, 2026
Connections
- Soul Syndicate (backing group)
- The Roots Radics (backing group)
- King Tubby (producer)
- King Jammy (producer)
- Steely & Clevie (producer)
- Sugar Minott (first producer)
- Winston Riley (producer)
- George Phang (producer)
- Jah Thomas (producer)
- Sly Dunbar (session work)
- Robbie Shakespeare (session work)
- The Firehouse Crew (collaborator)
- Ranking Toyan (collaborator)
- Channel One (studio)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 248, 250.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 250.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 250, 274; Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 494. The Rough Guide says he "was yet to enter adolescence" when he recorded for Mais.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 250, 280-82, 286; "Little John: True Confession," Discogs, accessed October 7, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/4160695.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 296, 298, 304-5, 312. The Firehouse account is that of Phantom (Noel Gray), Tubby's right-hand man, interviewed in the Rough Guide.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 405.
- "Little John (musician)," Wikipedia, accessed October 7, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_John_(musician). Wikipedia, citing Colin Larkin, also places him on Henry "Junjo" Lawes's Volcano sound and names Lawes and Joseph Hoo Kim among his producers.
