I went with her around the world because each of the territories wanted her to turn up and do TV shows and such, and it was just incredible how she handled it. Very funny, great sense of humour. She was really special," said Blackwell. Born Millicent Small in Clarendon, south Jamaica, she was one of seven brothers and five sisters, raised on the sugar plantation where her father was an overseer. There, she teamed up with reggae singer Roy Panton, and they became one of the island's most prolific duos, scoring a major hit with We'll Meet.
Blackwell took an interest in the singer after releasing some of those records in the UK on his fledgling record label, Island, and brought her to London in Small was enrolled at the Italia Conti Stage School for speech training and dancing lessons; and she toured the UK before cutting My Boy Lollipop with a group of London session musicians Small claimed Rod Stewart played the harmonica solo, but he has denied being present at the recording.
Released in February , it made her an international star, and helped popularise ska music around the world. A light-hearted, joyous musical, it cast the singer as Selina, a young Jamaican woman who flees her humdrum Liverpool lodgings in search of her glamorous London cousin, played by Elisabeth Welch it can still be seen for free on the BFI website. However, Small was never able to replicate the success of My Boy Lollipop, scoring only one further chart hit, a soundalike called Sweet William.
But she continued to tour and record, and appeared frequently on s pop shows like Juke Box Jury and Ready Steady Go. After leaving Island in , she recorded for legendary reggae label Trojan Records, where her first single was a cover of Nick Drake's Mayfair. However, it was the b-side that attracted greater attention. Called Enoch Power, it was a defiant response to Enoch Powell's inflammatory, anti-immigration "Rivers of Blood" speech. Small's lyrics, which captured the mood of the UK's Caribbean population, received a rapturous response when she played the song at the Caribbean Music Festival at Wembley Arena, a month after its release.
Soon after that single, and the accompanying album Time Will Tell, Small stepped away from music, saying "it was the end of the dream and it felt like the right time". Already subscribed? Log in. Forgotten your password? Want an ad-free experience? View offers. She was really special. What was at first considered a novelty record helped shift the parameters by which British listeners understood music, adjusting their ears to the offbeat but addictive ska rhythm, to which Ranglin had added such twists as a harmonica part; often this was claimed, even by Millie, to have been played by a young Rod Stewart — though this was not true.
Ranglin was amused that what was considered a definitive Jamaican ska record had been played by sheet music-reading British musicians who previously had never heard such a sound. Many archetypal releases have suitably exotic back stories and My Boy Lollipop is no exception. Originally released in in the US by Barbie Gaye as a shuffle blues, it had been a small hit.
Morris Levy, a New York record boss, contacted the bet-winner and took over the rights to My Boy Lollipop, thereby owning the publishing income from this future multimillion-seller. Although Blackwell had added Millie to a roster of what he considered to be the best of Jamaican talent for his fledgling Island Records label, he licensed My Boy Lollipop to the established Fontana label, appreciating that he needed larger resources to push what he was certain was going to be a hit.
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