"Israelites" is a song written by

Desmond Dekker Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earlie ...

and

Leslie Kong Leslie Kong (20 December 1933 – 9 August 1971) was an influential Chinese-Jamaican reggae producer. Career Leslie and his two older brothers Cecil and Lloyd ran a restaurant, ice cream parlour and record shop called Beverley's in Orange Stre ...

that became a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

for Dekker's group, Desmond Dekker & The Aces, reaching the top of the charts in numerous countries in 1969. Sung in

Jamaican creole Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English wo ...

, some of the song's lyrics were not readily understood by many British and American listeners at the time of its release. Despite this, the single was the first UK

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

#1 and among the first to reach the US top ten (peaking at #9). It combined the

Rastafarian Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...

religion with

rude boy Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi, and rudy are slang terms that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture, and that are still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms ''rude boy'' and ''rude girl'', among other ...

concerns, to make what has been described as a "timeless masterpiece that knew no boundaries".

Song

Origin and lyrics

Originally issued in Jamaica as "Poor Me Israelites", it remains the best known Jamaican reggae hit to reach the United States Hot 100's top 10, and was written almost two years after Dekker first made his mark with the

song "

007 (Shanty Town) "007 (Shanty Town)" is a 1967 rocksteady song by Jamaican band Desmond Dekker and the Aces, released as a single from their debut album of the same name. It was also a hit for Musical Youth in 1983. "007 (Shanty Town)" has been called "the mos ...

". Dekker composed the song after overhearing an argument: "I was walking in the park, eating

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion. A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...

. I heard a couple arguing about money. She was saying she needs money and he was saying the work he was doing was not giving him enough. I related to those things and began to sing a little song: 'You get up in the morning and you're slaving for bread.' By the time I got home, it was complete." The title has been the source of speculation, but most settle on the Rastafarian Movement's association with the

Twelve Tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( he, שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, translit=Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit=Tribes of Israel) are, according to Hebrew scriptures, the descendants of the biblical patriarch Jacob, also known as Israel, throu ...

. In the 1960s, Jamaican Rastafarians were largely marginalized as "cultish" and ostracized from the larger society, including by the more conservative Christian church in Kingston. Destitute ("slaving for bread") and unkempt ("Shirt dem a-tear up, trousers a-go"), some Rastafarians were tempted to a life of crime ("I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde"). The song is a lament of this condition.

Musical structure

The vocal melody is

syncopated In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "place ...

and is centred on the tone of B flat. The chords of the guitar accompaniment are played on the offbeat and move through the tonic chord flat the subdominant flat the dominant and the occasional flat viz, flat- flat- - flat- flat It was one of the first

songs to become an international hit, despite Dekker's strong Jamaican accent which made his lyrics difficult to understand for many listeners outside Jamaica.

Impact

Despite "Israelites" being recorded and released in 1968, the Uni 45 discography shows its cataloguing in 1969. In June 1969 it reached the Top Ten in the United States, peaking at #9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. It hit #1 in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Jamaica, South Africa, Canada, Sweden and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. "Israelites" brought a Jamaican beat to the British top 40 for the first time since Dekker's #14 hit "

" in 1967. The disc was released in the UK in March 1969 and was #1 for one week, selling over 250,000 copies. A global million sales was reported in June 1969.

Follow-up and reissues

Dekker had two more UK Top 10 hits over the next year, " It Miek" and his cover of

Jimmy Cliff James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...

's song "

You Can Get It If You Really Want "You Can Get It If You Really Want" is a famous rocksteady song written and performed by Jamaican reggae singer songwriter Jimmy Cliff and released as a single in July 1970. A version was recorded by Jamaican singer Desmond Dekker and released wit ...

". Dekker recorded on the Pyramid record label, and when its catalogue was acquired by Cactus Records in 1975, "Israelites" was re-issued in a first-time stereo mix. Just over six years after the original release, the song again reached a Top Ten position in the United Kingdom. In 1980, Dekker released a new recording of the song on UK label

Stiff Records Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London, England, by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007. Established at the outset of the punk rock boom, Stiff ...

, performed in an uptempo Two Tone style. It was taken from an album of similar re-recordings of his old hits, ''Black & Dekker''.

Appearance in other media

The song has appeared in numerous movies and television programs, including the soundtracks of the 1989 American film ''

Drugstore Cowboy ''Drugstore Cowboy'' is a 1989 American crime drama film directed by the American filmmaker Gus Van Sant. Written by Van Sant and Daniel Yost and based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle, the film stars Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, Heather ...

'' and the 2010 British film ''

Made in Dagenham ''Made in Dagenham'' is a 2010 British comedy-drama film directed by Nigel Cole and starring Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winstone, Daniel Mays and Richard Schiff. It ...

''. On November 3, 2019, "Israelites" was prominently featured in the third episode of HBO's ''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book Limited series (comics), maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 a ...

''. Potentially because of this usage, the song charted again, entering the ''Billboard'' Digital Reggae Song Sales Chart at #2.Jackson, Kevin (2019)
Israelites hits Billboard, again
, ''

Jamaica Observer ''Jamaica Observer'' is a daily newspaper published in Kingston, Jamaica. The publication is owned by Butch Stewart, who chartered the paper in January 1993 as a competitor to Jamaica's oldest daily paper, ''The Gleaner''. Its founding editor i ...

'', 13 November 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Bibliography

* ''Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles'' 1955-1990 - {{DEFAULTSORT:Israelites (Song) 1969 singles UK Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Germany Reggae songs Songs written by Leslie Kong Songs written by Desmond Dekker Song recordings produced by Leslie Kong Desmond Dekker songs Madness (band) songs 1968 songs Uni Records singles