This month, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission will crown the 51st Jamaica Festival Song Competition winner. The Jamaica Observer presents the second in a 10-part series on the long-running contest with a story on the late singer Freddie McKay.

Freddie McKay’s career had peaked in 1976 when he won the Festival Song Contest with Dance Dis Ya Festival, an uptempo jam that typified the Independence event.

Dance Dis Ya Festival was the Linstead-born singer’s second entry in the annual competition. Five years earlier, he placed third behind Eric Donaldson’s Cherry Oh Baby with Sweet You Sour You.

Produced by Joseph Hoo Kim for the Channel One label, Dance Dis Ya Festival edged the catchy All Night Till Daylight by Jacob Miller, which was produced by Joe Gibbs.

McKay is one of the forgotten men of reggae. A talented vocalist, he had been recording since the late 1960s, and broke through in 1968 with Love Is a Treasure, produced by Duke Reid.

Three years later, he hit the charts again with Picture On The Wall for producer Clement “Coxson” Dodd’s Studio One. He recorded a number of songs for different producers in the next five years, but none matched the success of Picture On The Wall.

The Soul Defenders, a band from Linstead, backed McKay on Picture On The Wall. Their drummer was Vincent “Morgie” Morgan, who knew the singer from their days playing the Brown Jug club in Ocho Rios.

“Freddie was a very passionate singer, when him sing him all cry. Him was really a good performer,” said Morgan, who revealed that McKay wrote Picture On The Wall after he was spurned by a lover in Linstead.

“Is a likkle lady him did check for an’ shi leave him. Him write di song bout it an’ wi use to do it all di time at Brown Jug, so when wi went into di studio to record it wi didn’t even rehearse. When Missa Dodd hear it, him sey, ‘dis a go sell like hot bread’,” he recalled.

Dance Dis Ya Festival, which carried a similar vibe, had a lot going for it. It featured The Revolutionaries, house band at Channel One; drummer Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare (guitar), Bertram ‘Ranchie’ McLean (bass), Ansell Collins (keyboards) and Bobby Ellis (trumpet) were the musicians who played on it.

Dunbar also played on All Night Till Daylight which was cut at Gibbs’ studio. In a 2013 interview with the Jamaica Observer, he said he used different drum patterns for the songs, but stressed that the winning element was the studio sound.

“Festival suppose to be a happy time an’ when yuh listen to Freddie McKay (song) yuh get dat feeling. Jacob song had dat too, but Dance Dis Ya Festival have more bounce because of how Channel One set up,” he explained.

McKay continued to record following his Festival win, but never achieved that career height again. He died in 1986 at age 39.