12 Classic Songs Produced By Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

The late legendary music producer, Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee, rated one of the ‘great generals’ of Jamaican music and the inventor of the ‘flying cymbal’, was not only a producer, but a creator and conceptualizer who made an indelible mark in the heydays the genres of ska, rocksteady and early days of reggae music.

He produced songs for some of the biggest names in reggae including The Wailers, Slim Smith, John Holt, Delroy Wilson, Roy Shirley, Pat Kelly and Johnny Clarke.

Lee, who died at the University Hospital of the West Indies, last week Tuesday at age 79, is credited for his instrumental role in the introduction of reggae to the United Kingdom in the early 1970s.  In fact, Striker, born Edward O’Sullivan Lee, was involved in the very complex changes as Jamaican music grew and evolved, meandering from rocksteady, to reggae and dub in the politically turbulent 1970s, when he produced several anti-establishment songs for Rastafarian artistes.

He was instrumental in the growth of the musical lives of many musicians as well as producers including, but not limited to Lloyd “King Jammy”  James, who has hailed him as his teacher and mentor, and Johnny Clarke, who lauded him as his motivator.

Here are 12 songs produced by Striker which have become classics in the annals of Jamaican music history.

John Holt, Stick By Me

Released in 1971, Holt’s Stick By Me was a cover version of a song first recorded in 1963 by American doo-wop trio Shep and the Limelites.

Holt’s version rode the Jamaican music charts for a tremendous 23 weeks and became the biggest selling Jamaican record of 1972.  It was one of several singles which Holt recorded with Lee.  In fact, it was Holt’s biggest success under Lee’s tutelage.   According to historical records, it was deliberately arranged to take advantage of the hottest dance move at the time, the John Crow Skank.

Eric Donaldson, Cherry Oh Baby

Bunny Lee proved himself again a top striker in scoring hits, with Eric Donaldson’s Cherry Oh Baby in 1971, voiced on a riddim which helped to make the tune one of the most popular and best-remembered Jamaican Festival Songs of all time.

The riddim has remained extremely popular, with more than 30 songs recorded on it, including Tony Rebel’s Sweet Jamaica and Shaka Shamba’s Reggae Fight.     The impact of Cherry Oh Baby, itself, was so great that The Rolling Stones covered it on their 1976 album Black and Blue and UB40 also recorded a cover on their 1983 album, Labour of Love.

Slim Smith and the Uniques, Let Me Go Girl

The biggest hit of 1967, Let Me Go Girl has been described as “a rocksteady piece of sheer class”.  It was penned by Harris ‘Bibi’ Seaton and sung by Slim Smith and the Uniques. Slim, who has been rated by many as the greatest local pop singer ever, for his natural falsetto sound, had formed a strong bond Striker who was, at the time, establishing himself as a young producer in the Greenwich Farm area of Kingston.  

The song propelled Striker, into stardom as a producer, showing that he was ready to take his seat amongst greats such as Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd, Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid, Prince Buster and King Edward ‘The Giant’.

Delroy Wilson, Better Must Come

Released in 1972 by Striker, the hit song Better Must Come was used by the People’s National Party (PNP) as a campaign song, but without the consent of the author and singer Delroy Wilson.  Wilson affirmed that “the song had nothing to do with politics”, and, on the contrary, was about his “personal despair at seeing many of his musical colleagues making money, whilst he, who was one of the first artistes from Trench Town to make a record, was still struggling.

Nevertheless, the song was so popular that its title became the late former Prime Minister Michael Manley’s campaign slogan in the Jamaican General Elections that year, and, according to political analysts, also influenced the outcome of the elections which the PNP won that year.

Max Romeo, Let The Power Fall

Also produced by Striker, in 1972, Max Romeo’s Let the Power Fall, was said to be also equally effective in helping the PNP gain power in 1972, as it was one of the key songs used in Manley’s campaign.  The song was the title track for what was Romeo’s second studio album.

This song too, like Better Must Come, was also not written for political purposes, but, on the other hand, was granted permission by the singer to be used, as according to him, not only did he like the PNP leader, but he was “a follower of his politics at the time” and it was “good promotion” for him.

John Holt, Up Park Camp

The song Up Park Camp is one of John Holt’s most memorable.

It speaks to the incarceration experience of a wayward young man, at the Jamaica Defence Force’s Red Fence prison, at the military headquarters on Camp Road in St Andrew.  Up Park Camp, was released in 1976, the same year that then Prime Minister Michael Manley, declared a state of emergency ahead of the general elections, which lasted for a year, in which several Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members were detained at the military base.

John Holt, Wear You To The Ball

Written by John Holt, this song was first released by The Paragons and later covered by British group UB40.   John and U-Roy also collaborated in a second version of the song which rose to number one on the Jamaican charts where it stayed for 12 weeks.

Roy Shirley, Music Field

Roy Shirley’s 1967 track, Music Field, was Bunny Lee’s first hit as a producer, and featured only four musicians.  Striker had Lyn Taitt on guitar; Joe Isaacs on drums; Brian Atkinson on bass, and Gladstone Anderson on the piano.

Stranger Cole and Lester Sterling, Bangarang

Bangarang was recorded in 1968 and featured Lester Sterling on saxophone, and Stranger Cole on vocals.   Striker has claimed that Bangarang is the first ‘proper reggae tune’.  Bangarang became a number one hit in Jamaica in 1968.

Derrick Morgan and Roland Alphonso, 1000 Tons of Megaton

Again, using his magic touch, in 1,000 tons of Megaton, Lee transformed Derrick Morgan into one of Jamaica’s first deejays, as he put things in motion to produce what became saxophonist Roland Alphonso’s biggest hit in 1969.

Max Romeo, Wet Dream

Max Romeo’s salacious reggae track became a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom in 1969 spending 25 weeks on the chart.  Wet Dream rode the British charts for 26 weeks, moving from number 30 to the top spot before its descending.

Interestingly, despite its controversial lyrics, it remains Romeo’s biggest commercial hit to date.  The song was controversial even before it was recorded, as according to Romeo in a Gleaner interview, when Striker visited Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One to voice the song, Dodd abandoned the mixing board labeling Romeo a “fool-fool artiste with fool-fool lyrics”.   Wet Dream was declared not fit for airplay after it was played twice on BBC radio.  However, by that time it had embedded in the minds of those who heard it, particularly the skinheads.   The song was not officially released in Jamaica.

Johnny Clarke, Move Out Of Babylon

This legendary song, upon release was an instant hit.  It went to number one in Jamaica and New York, number four in Europe and, sold 100,000 copies in Jamaica alone.

According to Clarke, it was written by him in 1976, as he waited on a Number 15 bus to go to Downtown Kingston.   With Striker’s golden touch, including the “flying cymbal” sound that swiftly became his trademark, the song became one of reggae’s classics, earning Clarke numerous encores wherever he performs it.  Striker had assembled a team of musicians called The Agggravators to provide the instrumentals, among them the iconic Robbie Shakespeare who played bass.