Wilfred Gerald Edwards (1938 – 15 August 1992), known as Jackie Edwards, was a Jamaican

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

, songwriter and record producer, whose career took in ska, R&B, soul,

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

, reggae, and ballads.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books,

Career

Edwards was born in Jamaica in 1938 where he was raised with fourteen siblings. Strongly influenced by Nat King Cole, he began performing at the age of 14.Wilfred ‘Jackie’ Edwards, An Unsung Hero Of The 60s
, ''

Jamaica Gleaner ''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica. Originally called the ''Daily Gleaner'', the name was changed on 7 December 1992 to ' ...

'', 24 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015 He came to the attention of

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll ...

in 1959. Edwards had four number one singles in Jamaica between 1960 and 1961, all self-written ballads with Latin-influenced music. When Blackwell set up

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

in London in 1962, Edwards travelled with him. Edwards worked as a singer and songwriter for Island, recording as a solo artist and also duets with Millie Small, as well as performing duties such as delivering records. He wrote both " Keep On Running" and " Somebody Help Me", that became number one singles in the United Kingdom for The Spencer Davis Group. He continued to work as a recording artist himself, with regular album releases through to the mid-1980s. Much of his later work was

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

by Bunny Lee, and he also worked with The Aggrovators. Dionne Bromfield covered his song "Oh Henry" on her album '' Introducing Dionne Bromfield'' in 2009. Edwards worked as a producer, co-producing the 1977 album ''Move Up Starsky'' by The Mexicano. The majority of Edwards' catalogue is published through Fairwood Music (UK) Ltd. He died in August 1992 from a heart attack.

Discography

Albums

*''The Most of Jackie Edwards'' (1963) – Island *''Stand Up for Jesus'' (1964) – Island *''Come on Home'' (1965) – Island *''By Demand'' (1966) – Island *''Pledging My Love'' (1966) – Island (with Millie Small) *''Premature Golden Sands'' (1967) – Island *''Put Your Tears Away'' (1969) – Island *''I Do Love You'' (1972) – Trojan *''Do You Believe in Love'' (1976) – Klik *''African Language'' (1977) – Harry J Records *''Let It Be Me'' (1978) – Jamaica Sound (with Hortense Ellis) *''Tell Me Darling'' (1978) – Imperial *''Sincerely'' (1978) – Trojan *''Come to Me Softly'' (1979) – Third World *''Nothing Takes the Place of You'' (1981) – Starlight *''King of the Ghetto'' (1982) – Black Music *''Tell It Like It Is'' (1982) – Starlight *''Love & Affection'' (1983) – Sky Note (feat. Kate Swadling) *''The Original 'Mr. Cool Ruler (1983) – Vista Sounds *''The Dynamic Jackie Wilfred Edwards'' (1984) – Boss *''Musical Treasures Disco Style'' (198?) – Imperial *''Endless Love'' (1986) – World Enterprise *''Heart to Heart'' (1990) – Justice *''Escape'' (1995) – Peter Pan Industries *''Dearest'' (1995) – Lagoon *''In Paradise'' (1995) – Carl's Records

Compilation albums

*''The Best of Jackie Edwards'' (1966) – Island *''The Best of Jackie & Millie'' (1967) – Trojan (with Millie Small) *''20 Greatest Hits'' (1977) – Conflict *''Starlight'' (1978) – Pye *''20 Super Hits'' (19??) – Sonic Sounds *''In Paradise'' (1994) – Trojan *''Memorial'' (19??) – Rhino *''Singing Hits from Studio One and More'' (1995) – Rhino *''Great Soul Hits: Put Your Tears Away'' (1997) – Marginal *''This Is My Story: A History of Jamaica's Greatest Balladeer'' (2005) – Trojan *''I Feel So Bad'' (2006) – Castle *''50 Greatest Hits'' (2013) – Alexander Music Group

References

External links