World of Jamaican Music

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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 →

Phyllis Dillon

Artist. Rocksteady

Active
1966-2004
Sunrise
December 27, 1944, Linstead, St. Catherine, Jamaica
Sunset
April 15, 2004, Long Island, New York (cancer)

Phyllis Dillon was the female voice most closely identified with Duke Reid's Treasure Isle, and the singer usually named first when rocksteady is discussed as a vocal music rather than a rhythm.

She was born at Linstead, in St. Catherine, and went to Linstead Primary School. She sang in church and in talent contests, and in her late teens joined a band called the Vulcans, working first around Linstead and then at clubs in Kingston, Ocho Rios, and Montego Bay. She was singing with them at the Glass Bucket in Kingston when Lynn Taitt heard her and took her to Treasure Isle.

Her first record, "Don't Stay Away," was cut late in 1966 with Tommy McCook and the Supersonics behind her. It was her own song, as was "It's Rocking Time," which supplied the basis for Alton Ellis's "Rock Steady." Most of what followed was drawn from American records: "Perfidia," Alberto Dominguez's 1939 song; Bettye Swann's "Make Me Yours"; Perry Como's "Tulips and Heather"; the Grass Roots' "Midnight Confessions"; and Stephen Stills's "Love the One You're With." "One Life to Live" is hers as well. She recorded a series of duets with Alton Ellis, billed as Alton and Phyllis, among them "Why Did You Leave Me to Cry" and "Remember That Sunday." She sang in a "sweet, smooth soprano," and the bassist Jackie Jackson, who knew her from Treasure Isle, said she had "the nicest voice in Jamaican music."

At the end of 1967 she moved to New York and for the next five years kept two lives going, working there and returning to Jamaica to record. She stopped in 1971 and left the business altogether. She turned down the first invitations to come back, then in 1991 sang in the Heineken Startime series in Kingston, which restarted her career; she toured Britain, Germany, and Japan through the 1990s, and in 1998 went back into the studio with Lynn Taitt and the drummer Winston Grennan. She departed on Long Island on April 15, 2004, at fifty-nine; the cause was cancer. She was given the Order of Distinction.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls her "Treasure Isle's most successful female singer." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 65.
  2. "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer With Her Sweet Sound," Jamaica Gleaner, December 21, 2014, http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20141221/ent/ent5.html, which gives December 27, 1944, on the authority of her sister, "contrary to what is printed elsewhere." "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians, Encyclopedia.com, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/dillon-phyllis gives 1948.
  3. "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians. See also "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer." Augustyn reproduces a Star photograph of November 6, 1964, showing Dillon in the front row with the Vulcans, beside Roy Panton, who recalled that the band later "went to Germany without us": Heather Augustyn, "Roy Panton: Over 50 Years of Sweet Song," SkaBook (blog), March 6, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/03/06/roy-panton-50-years-sweet-song/.
  4. "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians, which says she was nineteen at the time; see also "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer." Wikipedia says Tommy McCook introduced her to the studio. "Phyllis Dillon," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Dillon.
  5. "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer." On the record, see also Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 65.
  6. The Treasure Isle single pairs "It's Rocking Time" with "Perfidia." "Phyllis Dillon With Tommy McCook & The Supersonics - Perfidia / It's Rocking Time," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/7987720. On its link to "Rock Steady," "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians. No writing credit for the song was found.
  7. The Rough Guide calls hers the "definitive interpretation of Glenn Miller/Dorothy Claire's 'Perfidia'." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 65. Bradley dates it to 1968. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 197. The Gleaner calls it "a 1940s song, written by Albert Dominguez." "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer." On the Stills song, "Phyllis Dillon - One Life To Live," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5937616. The other covers are listed in "Phyllis Dillon," Wikipedia.
  8. The 1972 Trojan LP credits "One Life to Live, One Love to Give" to Teddy Randazzo and Victoria Pike, and credits Dillon with "We Belong Together" and "You Are Like Heaven to Me." "Phyllis Dillon - One Life To Live," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5937616. The Rough Guide calls "One Life to Live" "her single most impressive effort." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 65.
  9. "Alton & Phyllis / Neville Hinds - Remember That Sunday / Sunday Gravy," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4053490; on "Why Did You Leave Me to Cry," "Phyllis Dillon," Wikipedia.
  10. "Phyllis Dillon, the Rocksteady Queen," Jamaica Observer, February 14, 2022, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2022/02/14/phyllis-dillon-the-rocksteady-queen.
  11. "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer." Contemporary Musicians says she returned "twice annually." "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians.
  12. "Phyllis Dillon," Wikipedia. "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians. says she retired after realizing she was "not seeing any of the money she should have earned."
  13. The producer Michael Barnett recalled: "It was not until 1991 that I finally convinced her to do the show, 'Get Ready Rocksteady' at the National Arena." Basil Walters, "Phyllis Dillon Died a Broken Woman After Dismal J'can Experience," Jamaica Observer, April 17, 2004, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2004/04/17/phyllis-dillon-died-a-broken-woman-after-dismal-jcan-experience/. The Gleaner dates that show to June 1, 1991. "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer." Contemporary Musicians mentions the Heineken Startime concerts only among the shows that followed. "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians. Wikipedia credits an invitation from the Oceana Hotel. "Phyllis Dillon," Wikipedia.
  14. "Dillon, Phyllis," Contemporary Musicians, which lists New York, London, Jamaica, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Japan. The 1998 session with Taitt is reported in "Phyllis Dillon," Wikipedia. No source was found naming Winston Grennan.
  15. She died at home on Long Island. Walters, "Phyllis Dillon Died a Broken Woman." Her sister received the Order of Distinction on her behalf in October 2009. "Phyllis Dillon Brought Good Cheer."

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