''My Boy Lollipop'' was the first album for Jamaican singer

Millie Small Millicent Dolly May Small CD (6 October 1947 – 5 May 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who is best known for her 1964 hit " My Boy Lollipop". The song reached number two in both the UK and US charts and sold over seven million ...

and her only album for

Smash Records Smash Records was an American record label founded in 1961 as a subsidiary of Mercury Records by Mercury executive Shelby Singleton and run by Singleton with Charlie Fach. Fach took over after Singleton left Mercury in 1966. Its recording artist ...

. On the front and back of the album, Millie is called "the Blue Beat Girl".

Ernest Ranglin Ernest Ranglin (born 19 June 1932) is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels including Studio One and Island Records. Ranglin pla ...

was credited for the accompaniment and direction. The back of the album contains an essay about Millie. It tells a little bit of her early life in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

then tells how a talent contest led to a recording career and hit singles in

, which led to her discovery by British record producer Chris Blackwell. According to the essay, Blackwell then brought her to London to promote her talent and a new type of Jamaican music called "

Ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

." The essay also mistakenly says that she was born on October 8, 1948; she was actually born on October 6, 1947. The essay also includes quotes by Millie about her newfound fame. The essay's conclusion tells of the success of her 1964 hit "

My Boy Lollipop "My Boy Lollipop" (originally "My Girl Lollypop") is a song written in the mid-1950s by Robert Spencer of the doo-wop group The Cadillacs, and usually credited to Spencer, Morris Levy, and Johnny Roberts. It was first recorded in 1956 by American ...

" in the US and how it made her one of the most sought-after performers by producers of television and stage, and adds that Millie had also finished a movie role. "Don't You Know" (which did not chart) and the title track were two singles that were released before the album. "Sweet William" (a minor hit) was lifted from the album.

Track listing

Charts

Album - Billboard (United States) Singles - Billboard (United States) {{Authority control 1964 debut albums Smash Records albums Millie Small albums