Patsy Todd
Artist. Ska, rocksteady
- Active
- 1959-1966
- Sunrise
- September 23, 1944
- Also known as
- Pata Pata Patsy, Millicent Todd, Millicent "Patsy" Todd, Derrick and Patsy, Stranger and Patsy
Millicent "Patsy" Todd was the woman's voice in the two best-loved boy-girl duos of ska, Derrick and Patsy and Stranger and Patsy, and one of the few women of the period with hits of her own.
Derrick Morgan found her through her mother, who told him her daughter could sing; she auditioned with a gospel song, and Morgan took her to Duke Reid, for whom the two cut "Love Not to Brag." Modeled on the New Orleans duo Shirley and Lee, Derrick and Patsy recorded for Reid, Coxsone Dodd and Leslie Kong, and at Beverley's cut some of their best sides, among them "Housewives' Choice."
When Morgan came back from Britain in the autumn of 1963 he found that she had begun recording with Stranger Cole, and the new pairing, introduced by Reid, became the more popular act, with "When I Call Your Name," "Hey Hey Baby" and "Down by the Trainline" among their records. The partnership lasted until 1966, by which time they were recording for Sonia Pottinger. For Pottinger she also had a solo hit in 1966, "Pata Pata Rock Steady," a version of Miriam Makeba's song with Count Ossie's drummers behind her, and she toured abroad with Byron Lee. Stranger Cole said she "was much braver than I." She had "never had a say" in the songs she sang in the duets, and her solo "A Man Is a Two Face," with Lynn Taitt and the Jets, gave her a chance to try other things; on it, Heather Augustyn writes, she sounds "informed, guiding, warning."
She left the business in the middle of the decade, seeing others make money while she did not, and moved with her family to Florida, where she worked in a hospital. Years later she performed again with Morgan and Cole.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Derrick Morgan (duo partner)
- Stranger Cole (duo partner)
- Count Ossie (backing group)
- Coxsone Dodd (producer)
- Duke Reid (producer)
- Sonia Pottinger (producer)
- Leslie Kong (producer)
- Byron Lee (toured with)
Notes
- Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 95, names "Derrick & Patsy" among the vocal duos "crucial in establishing the always popular smooove ska ballad." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 35, counts Derrick & Patsy (Derrick Morgan and Millicent Todd) among "the best-received boy-girl acts of the time."
- Yasmine Peru, "Ska Singer Patsy Todd, 'the One Who Walked Away', Turns 80," Jamaica Gleaner, September 22, 2024, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20240922/ska-singer-patsy-todd-one-who-walked-away-turns-80. The Rough Guide has Morgan cutting a duet with Patsy for Reid, "Love Not To Brag." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 21.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 29, 35, which names "Housewife's Choice" among their Beverley's sides. Peru credits their biggest Coxsone hit, "Feel So Fine," a version of a Shirley and Lee song, and calls "Housewives Choice" their most popular Beverley's record. Peru, "Ska Singer Patsy Todd."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 35. Peru, "Ska Singer Patsy Todd," which quotes Cole that Reid introduced them and that Patsy was "the more popular act."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 40.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105, 107. On the tours with Byron Lee: Peru, "Ska Singer Patsy Todd."
- Heather Augustyn, "Pata Pata Patsy," Skabook, April 8, 2016, https://skabook.com/tag/millicent-todd/.
- Peru, "Ska Singer Patsy Todd," quoting Prince Buster's son Ali: "everybody around her was making money but she wasn't," and "She is the one who walked away from music." The article dates her eightieth birthday to Monday, September 23, 2024. Augustyn gives a different account of her leaving: she "left it all behind in 1969" and "moved to New York to start a new life." Augustyn, "Pata Pata Patsy."
