''Private Beach Party'' is a 1985 studio album by the

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 ...

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 ...

singer

Gregory Isaacs Gregory Anthony Isaacs OD (15 July 1951 – 25 October 2010)Thompson, p. 127. was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in ''The New York Times'', described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae".Miles, Milo (1992),RECORDI ...

. The album continued Isaacs' working relationship with producer

Augustus "Gussie" Clarke Augustus "Gussie" Clarke (born 1954) is a reggae producer who worked with some of the top Jamaican reggae artists in the 1970s and later set up his own Music Works studio. Career Clarke started working in the music industry by cutting dub plat ...

, to whom he would return in 1988 for the hugely successful "Rumours" and '' Red Rose for Gregory''.Greene, Jo-Ann
''Private Beach Party'' Review
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, retrieved 2011-04-29 Clarke employed Carlton Hines to write several of the songs on the album, and the musicians featured include

Sly Dunbar Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. Biography Dunbar began playing at 15 in a band called ...

Robbie Shakespeare Robert Warren Dale Shakespeare (27 September 1953 – 8 December 2021) was a Jamaican bass guitarist and record producer, best known as half of the reggae rhythm section and production duo Sly and Robbie, with drummer Sly Dunbar. Regarded as ...

Lloyd Parks Lloyd Parks (born 26 May 1949) is a Jamaican reggae vocalist and bass player who has recorded and performed as a solo artist as well as part of Skin, Flesh & Bones, The Revolutionaries, The Professionals, and We the People Band.Larkin, Colin: ...

, and

Willie Lindo Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William (given name), William or Wilhelm (name), Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American ...

. The album features duets with Carlene Davis (on "Feeling Irie") and

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of l ...

(on "Let off Supm").Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 130 Originally released by

Greensleeves Records Greensleeves Records & Publishing, shortened to ''Greensleeves Records'', is a record label specializing in dancehall and reggae music. The company was founded by Chris Cracknell and Chris Sedgwick. Based in Britain, Greensleeves Records star ...

in 1985, it was released in the US by

Ras Records RAS Records, also known as Real Authentic Sound, is a reggae record label. History RAS Records was founded in 1979 by Doctor Dread. In his travels to Jamaica he created a network within the reggae artist community there. By the early to mid-1980 ...

Reception

's Jo-Ann Greene called the album a "masterpiece", stating "There's not a mis-step within the entire set, and every song is so high-caliber that's it's useless to try to pick favorites".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

rated the album B+, commenting "there's a light touch to this music--Isaacs whispering and murmuring around diffident horn-section filigrees--that I'd call sexy".Christgau, Robert
Gregory Isaacs
, in ''Christgau's Record Guide: the '80s'', 1990, Pantheon Books, , reproduced at robertchristgau.com, retrieved 2011-04-29 ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' described ''Private Beach Party'' as "his best album in years — a fresh, diverse package".Grgeory Isaacs
, ''

'', retrieved 2011-04-29 Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton selected the album as one of their recommendations in ''The Rough Guide to Reggae'', calling the duet with Davis "outstanding".Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) ''The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn.'', Rough Guides, , p. 287

Track listing

All tracks composed by Carlton "Tetrack" Hines; except where noted #"Private Beach Party" (Hines, Willie Lindo) #"Wish You Were Mine" (Gregory Isaacs) #"Feeling Irie" - Gregory Isaacs & Carlene Davis #"Bits and Pieces" #"Let Off Supm" - Gregory Isaacs &

#"No Rushings" (Phipps) #"Better Plant Some Loving" #"Special to Me" (Lloyd Forest, Willie Lindo) #"Got to Be in Tune" #"Promise Is a Comfort"

Personnel

*Gregory Isaacs - vocals *

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

- bass guitar *

- drums *Willie Stewart - drums *Willie Lindo - guitar, arrangements * Robert Lyn - piano, synthesizer *Franklyn "Bubbler" Waul - piano, synthesizer *Lloyd Forest - backing vocals *David Harvey - backing vocals *Carlton Hines - backing vocals *

Dean Fraser Dean Ivanhoe Fraser (sometimes appearing as Dean Frazer) (born 4 August 1957) Allmusic.com biography by Sandra Brennan/ref> is a Jamaican saxophonist who has contributed to hundreds of reggae recordings since the mid-1970s. He was awarded the Mu ...

- horns *David Madden - horns *Ronald "Nambo" Robinson - horns *Rass Brass - horns *Junior "Chico" Chin - horns * Carlene Davis - vocals *

- vocals

References

{{Authority control 1985 albums Gregory Isaacs albums Greensleeves Records albums