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 →

The Pioneers

Band. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1962-present
Also known as
Pioneers

The Pioneers were a Kingston vocal group who sang two of the most famous racing songs in Jamaican music and became one of the first reggae acts to make a career in Britain.

Sydney Crooks started the group with his brother Derrick and Winston Hewitt, and Glen Adams sang with them for a while, but their early records went nowhere. The group took shape at Joe Gibbs's Amalgamated label, where Crooks worked and where Jackie Robinson, a teenager who had been placing in cinema talent shows, joined him. Recording for Gibbs, with Lee Perry supervising, they made "Give Me a Little Loving," their first big local hit, "Jackpot," and "Long Shot" (1968), the true story of a much-raced Jamaican horse.

After Gibbs and Crooks fell out, the duo moved to Leslie Kong's Beverley's, where they were paid a weekly salary and signed a proper contract, and added George Dekker (George Agard) to make a trio. For Kong they made "Samfie Man," about a confidence trickster, a big Jamaican hit, and the sequel "Long Shot Kick de Bucket," on the horse's death in his 203rd race in 1969, which entered the British chart in October 1969 and reached number 21. They came to Britain that November for a six-week tour that lasted six months, and like several Jamaican acts of the time they made their home in England.

Signed to Trojan, they cut "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah," written by Jimmy Cliff and produced by Cliff and Crooks, with the riddim laid in Kingston and the voices added at Chalk Farm in London; it reached number 5 in Britain in 1971. Crooks settled in London and produced skinhead favorites of his own. The Rough Guide thinks their later, lighter records have led people to overlook how good a harmony trio they were at their peak. Robinson and Dekker kept performing as the Pioneers into the 2010s.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 100, 108. Bradley lists their "Long Shot Kick de Bucket" and "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" among the British reggae hits of the period. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 242.
  2. Ingmar Hugen, "Interview with Jackie Robinson of the Pioneers: Fun Is the Key Factor," Reggae Vibes, January 19, 2020, https://www.reggae-vibes.com/articles/interview/2020/01/interview-with-jackie-robinson-of-the-pioneers/. Wikipedia dates the founding to 1962 and says Hewitt emigrated to Canada in 1966, citing David Katz's Solid Foundation. "The Pioneers (Band)," Wikipedia, accessed October 6, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pioneers_(band). Augustyn lists the Pioneers among the artists Theophilus Beckford produced on his King Pioneer label, which issued about fifty records between 1962 and 1966. Heather Augustyn, "Easy Snappin' Theophilus Beckford," SkaBook (blog), April 4, 2014, https://skabook.com/2014/04/04/easy-snappin-theophilus-beckford/.
  3. Hugen, "Interview with Jackie Robinson." Wikipedia, citing Katz, quotes Crooks recalling that he found Robinson sitting outside the studio on a stone and brought him in to sing harmony on "Give Me a Little Loving." "The Pioneers (Band)."
  4. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 76 (where Perry is "the actual producer"), 100, 101 ("their first major local hit, 'Give Me A Little Loving'"). The Amalgamated single of "Long Shot" is dated 1968 on Discogs. "Pioneers: Long Shot / Dip and Fall Back," Discogs, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3491087-Pioneers-Long-Shot-Dip-And-Fall-Back.
  5. Hugen, "Interview with Jackie Robinson." Robinson says Dekker joined in 1968; Wikipedia, citing Katz, places it after their first records for Kong. "The Pioneers (Band)."
  6. Robert Webb, "Story of the Song: Long Shot Kick de Bucket, The Pioneers," Independent, reposted by Clinton Lindsay, December 31, 2021, https://clintonlindsay.com/2021/12/31/story-of-the-song-long-shot-kick-de-bucket-by-the-pioneers.
  7. "Pioneers," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/13790/pioneers/. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 108 ("Samfi Man" a "massive Jamaican hit"; "Long Shot (Kick De Bucket)" not the same song as the Gibbs "Long Shot").
  8. Hugen, "Interview with Jackie Robinson." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 249.
  9. "Pioneers," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/13790/pioneers/. Writing and production credits are from the Trojan single. "The Pioneers: Let Your Yeah Be Yeah," Discogs, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2457712-The-Pioneers-Let-Your-Yeah-Be-Yeah. On where it was recorded: Hugen, "Interview with Jackie Robinson."
  10. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 243; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 386.
  11. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 101.
  12. Hugen, "Interview with Jackie Robinson."

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map