Clearing the age barrier

Howard Campbell

Monday, February 20, 2012

SO-CALLED vintage artistes have consistently complained about lack of airplay for their new songs. They are victims of their heyday, as disc jockeys usually bypass their new material for the songs that made them famous in the 1960s and 1970s. Here are some of the artistes who have made a mark on Jamaican radio and charts after age 40.

Stanley Beckford was a regular on the charts and radio during the 1970s with mento songs like Broom Weed and Brown Gal. He was still in the spotlight in the 1980s and the 1990s when he won the Festival Song Contest with songs like Come Sing With Me and Dem A Pollute (done with the Astronauts).

A bass player of note, Boris Gardiner played on pivotal hit songs like Nanny Goat by Larry and Alvin, and Junior Murvin’s Police And Thieves. He also established himself as a soulreggae singer on songs such as It’s So Nice (To Be With You). Gardiner’s biggest success came in 1986, at 43 years old, when he scored a British Top 20 hit with his cover of American country singer Mac Davis’ I Wanna Wake Up With You.

Marcia Griffiths is one of Jamaica’s enduring artistes, starting at Studio One in the 1960s, when she made hit songs like Feel Like Jumping and Truly. In the 1970s, she maintained her chart run with the majestic Dreamland and Stepping Outa Babylon. Griffiths was still making hit songs as a hip ‘fortysomething’ in the 1990s for producer Donovan Germain, hitting the charts with Fire Burning and I Shall Sing.

Fans first heard of George Nooks in the mid-1970s when he had the unique distinction of recording hit songs as a singer and deejay (Prince Mohammed). Tribal War and Dread Nuh Have No Fortyleg for producer Joe Gibbs were two of his finest moments then, but Nooks disappeared from the scene for almost 20 years. In his mid-40s, he made a massive comeback in 2000 with his cover of Al Green’s God Is Standing By, which topped local charts.