Desmond Dekker

Genres:	Pop / Rock • Reggae
Descriptive "tags":	ska • reggae • rocksteady • jamaica • roots reggae
Decades Active:	1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	BBC Music • IMDb • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

Desmond Adolphus Dacres, 16 July 1941, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, d. 25 May 2006, London, England. Dacres spent much of his orphaned childhood near Seaforth in St. Thomas before returning to Kingston, where he worked as a welder. His workmates encouraged him to seek a recording audition and, after receiving rejections from leading producers Clement Dodd and Duke Reid, he found a mentor in the influential Leslie Kong. In 1963, the newly named Dekker released his first single, ‘Honour Your Father And Mother’, which was also issued in the UK courtesy of Island Records. During the same period, Dekker teamed up with his backing group, the Aces (Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard). Together, they enjoyed enormous success in Jamaica during the mid- to late 60s with a formidable run of 20 number 1 hits to their credit, including ‘King Of Ska’, ‘This Woman’ and ‘Mount Zion’. The emergence of rocksteady in the latter half...

Read the Full Biography of Desmond Dekker