The Jamaica Observer‘s Entertainment Desk continues with the 36th of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.

At the dawn of the 1990s, Chaka Demus and Pliers were seen in some quarters as has-beens. Early that decade, the deejay/singer duo defied the odds by making a remarkable comeback with a string of hit songs.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Gal Wine’s release, their first hit song together. Produced by Ossie Hibbert, it led the album of the same name, released in the United Kingdom by Greensleeves Records in 1992.

The following year, Chaka Demus and Pliers linked with The Taxi Gang in sessions at Mixing Lab studio in Kingston, that yielded a flurry of songs that made the British National Chart’s Top 40.

Six songs from Tease Me — their 1993 album distributed by Island Records subsidiary Mango Records — entered that table. They were the title song, Gal Wine, She Don’t Let Nobody, Twist And Shout, Murder She Wrote and I Wanna be Your Man.

That feat remains a record in the UK.

In March 2021, Marcello Carlin and Lena Friesen revisited Tease Me and its triumphs of 1993/94 in a review for nobilliards.blogspot.com.

“Meanwhile, during 1993, dancehall had essentially taken over, and rejuvenated, pop music, at least in Britain. With a top three singles chart at one point comprising Shaggy, Toronto’s Snow and Shabba Ranks, it was a much-needed injection of life into an increasingly moribund, Radio 2-friendly hit parade. Also included in the top three of around that period was Tease Me, the song, one of the most cheerfully askew of that year’s hits, and also the biggest-selling, non-number one single of its year, which keeps the listener guessing with its unexpected rhythmic, production and other structural trapdoors but crucially also keeps the foot tapping. It is not quite reggae but assuredly on the way to dancehall. The knowledgeable dancer swayed to it in the same way that they would have swayed, quarter-tempo, to what was then still known as Jungle. The sampled female ‘yeah?,’ like a cat ready to emerge from the cradle, provided the song’s punctum,” they wrote.

Pliers made his name as a solo act with songs like Sunshine Day and Love is Burning. Chaka Demus first entered dancehall/reggae charts alongside Admiral Bailey with One Scotch, and followed up with solo hits such as Young Gal Business.

While Tease Me’s songs that made the UK charts did well in Jamaica, none resonated more than Murder She Wrote, a song Pliers wrote several years earlier about a personal experience. With its catchy beat similar to Toots and The Maytals’ 1966 Festival Song winner Bam Bam, Murder She Wrote enjoyed copious play on radio on radio and in dances.

Tease Me has kept Chaka Demus and Pliers busy since its release. At the height of its success, they toured the world, at one point with British supergroup, UB40.

In 2007, they performed Murder She Wrote alongside Alicia Keys at the American Music Awards.