Double 12″ Spin #73 -Jimmy Riley / Ken Boothe & Cutty Ranks-
And we also saw a heavy combination that same year when Ken Boothe linked up with the “Cutter,” Cutty Ranks. Beres Hammond and Richard Bell sat behind the board for this Star Trail production, and Love Is Not Simple really took over the airwaves.
A. Jimmy Riley – Rougher Yet
B. Computer Paul – Version
Heavy Beat – HBR048
Jimmy Riley
Martin James Norman Riley, the man the world knew as Jimmy Riley, was born on 22 May 1947 in the Jones Town area of west Kingston. He was a singer who navigated the shifts from ska and rocksteady into reggae without ever losing his footing. Growing up in Kingston back then meant being right in the heart of a massive talent pool. While attending Kingston Senior School, he spent his time with guys like Carl Dawkins and Alton Ellis. He was tight with Slim Smith, but he ended up starting a different group called The Sensations after he didn’t get a spot in The Techniques.
Working with Cornell Campbell and a few others, The Sensations recorded some serious rocksteady hits for Duke Reid over at Treasure Isle. By 1967, he was back in the fold with Slim Smith, joining Lloyd Charmers in the new lineup of The Uniques. That group dropped some heavy scorcher tunes like My Conversation and Watch This Sound. When that era ended, Bunny Lee encouraged him to go solo, which led to a great run with Lee “Scratch” Perry in the early seventies. Riley helped out with the Wailers during their Perry sessions and coached artists like Dave Barker. He also put out his own Upsetter singles, including Sons of Negus and a rootsy take on Woman’s Got To Have It.
As the seventies wound down, he released albums like Showcase, Majority Rule, and Tell The Youth The Truth. But his biggest commercial win happened when he teamed up with Sly and Robbie. Their track Love And Devotion hit number one in Jamaica and even made it into the UK pop charts in 1982. A year later, his version of Sexual Healing reached the top of the UK reggae charts. During that same productive time, he released Put The People First on Shanachie and the popular Rydim Driven set through Island.
In the late eighties, he moved to Miami and ran a record shop for a while before returning home to Jamaica in the early nineties. The Bob Marley Reggae Festival in LA honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award back in 1996. Then things came full circle when his son Tarrus blew up in 2006 with She’s Royal. It brought a whole new audience to Jimmy’s music. The two of them toured the world together, and in 2008 they recorded the big duet Pull Up Selector. His last album, Contradiction, came out in 2013 with guests like Fantan Mojah and Sizzla. Jimmy Riley passed away from cancer in New York on 23 March 2016. He was 68 years old and left behind a voice that defined multiple eras of the music.
A. Ken Boothe & Cutty Ranks – Love Is Not Simple
B. Unknown – Version
Charm – CRT 75
Ken Boothe
Kenneth George Boothe came into the world in 1948 in Denham Town, Kingston, Jamaica. By the time he was eight years old he’d already won his first singing contest. Growing up in Denham Town, he was drinking in everything the sound systems and jukeboxes had to offer, from Owen Gray, to Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Mahalia Jackson. That mix of Jamaican and American soul would run through his voice for the rest of his career.
His first recordings came through a duo with Stranger Cole, and between 1963 and 1965 they put out tracks like Hush Baby and Artibella as Stranger & Ken. He also cut the single Paradise with Roy Shirley in 1966. But it was Coxsone Dodd who gave him the real platform. Signed to Studio One that same year, he scored with The Train Is Coming, backed by the Wailers. His debut album Mr. Rock Steady dropped in 1967, and the rocksteady gem Moving Away followed in the same period, a track so well built that artists have been coming back to cover and sample it ever since.
When he left Studio One, Leslie Kong and Beverley’s Records were next, and Freedom Street and Why Baby Why both kept him firmly in the conversation. Then came the moment that took him global. Linking up with producer Lloyd Charmers he cut a reggae version of David Gates’ Everything I Own. It hit the top of the UK Singles Chart on 26 October 1974, and it sat there for three weeks. Crying Over You came right behind it and settled at number eleven. And when Boy George brought Everything I Own back to number one in 1987, it was Boothe’s reggae reading he was working from, not the original Bread recording.
In 1995, Ken jumped on a new version of The Train Is Coming with Shaggy, which ended up on both the Grammy-winning Boombastic album and the Money Train film soundtrack. Across the years he’s put in work with producers like Bunny Lee, Phil Pratt, King Jammy, Jack Ruby, and Tappa Zukie, building a catalogue that comfortably clears twenty albums, from Blood Brothers in 1976 through to Inna de Yard in 2017.
The island honored his legacy with the Order of Distinction, and he took home the Bob Marley Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. But life been throwing some heavy trials at the singer lately. After a minor stroke in 2022, news arrived in 2025 that he was facing Parkinson’s and blindness. International dates had to stop, but he still works at his studio in Kingston when he can. Despite his illness, he reached Florida for Rhythms Of Africa in April 2025, closing both nights for a capacity crowd.
Cutty Ranks
Philip Thomas, better known by his stage name Cutty Ranks, was born on 12 February 1965 and possesses one of the most recognizable voices in the game. He earned his stripes on the local sound system circuit from a young age. By the time he was fourteen, he was already rolling with Gemini. Over the following years, he worked his way through Rebel Tone, Papa Roots, and Stereo Mars. He eventually landed at Killamanjaro, sharing the mic with heavyweights like Josey Wales, Early B, and Super Cat. He spent his early days as a butcher before the music took hold and became his life.
It was 1986 when his first tune, Gunman Lyrics, dropped on the Techniques label for Winston Riley, using the popular Things and Time riddim. The track was something else. Instead of just talking about violence, he got creative. He turned different guns into characters at a dance, giving them jobs like gatemaster or bartender. It was a fresh approach that many believe changed how those types of lyrics were written from then on. He kept working with Riley on tracks like Fishman Lyrics and Out of Hand. After spending some time in Miami with Super Cat, the crew at Fashion Records in London reached out to him.
By 1990, he was a key part of Donovan Germain’s Penthouse family. This put him in the booth with icons like Marcia Griffiths, Beres Hammond, Wayne Wonder, and Dennis Brown. The year 1991 was massive for him because he released two albums. He gave us The Stopper through Fashion and Lethal Weapon on Penthouse. That The Stopper project was pure fire, featuring tracks like Original Rude Boy Style, The Cutter, Pon Pause, and Hand Grenade.
Fast forward to 1996, and Priority Records released Six Million Ways to Die and From Mi Heart. The former included a hip hop version of A Who Seh Mi Dun, which he first recorded on the Bam Bam riddim back in 1992. That legendary intro line about “six million ways to die” became a staple in hip hop. He teamed up with King Jammy in 2000 for the Back with a Vengeance album and later started putting out tunes on his own Philip Music label. Through all the years, Cutty has stayed grounded. He moved away from the slackness of his early days to focus on roots and culture.
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