Reggae Specials, The Vinyl Records
As Beatlemanina approached its peak, Jamaican music was undergoing a transition that started with ska, and then morphed into rocksteady, before assuming its ultimate form as reggae. Inevitably these cultures collided, with artists such as the Paragons and Marcia Griffiths establishing a tradition of creating dynamic reggae covers of the Beatles’ hits that continues to this day. Issued for the first time on vinyl, ‘The Reggae Specials’ extends this lineage, as some of Britain’s black belt reggae musicians set out on a series of version excursions that include some of the Fab Four’s best loved bitter-sweet cuts.