The Folkes Brothers were a

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 ...

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 ...

group, composed of John, Mico, and Junior Folkes, best known for the single "

Oh Carolina "Oh Carolina" is a 1958 song by the Folkes Brothers, produced by Prince Buster and released in 1960, after which it became an early ska hit. It was covered by many various artists, including Shaggy in 1993. Folkes Brothers version The origina ...

History

The group's 1961 single "

" was the first

hit record A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

produced by Prince Buster, and is regarded as a landmark in the history of

and

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 ...

. In 1994, John Folkes and Buster were involved in a legal dispute over the authorship of the

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

, after a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer * Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse * Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspor ...

became an international hit.Jamaican Records Fill R&B Gap
, '' Jamaica Gleaner'', 20 July 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014 It was eventually ruled by the High Court in London, England, that Folkes held the

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

. Later, Folkes assigned the copyright to Greensleeves so that Shaggy's ''

Pure Pleasure ''Pure Pleasure'' is the debut album released by Jamaican singer Shaggy. The album was released on July 30, 1993. The album spawned four singles: "Oh Carolina", which was a dancehall remake of a ska hit by the Folkes Brothers, reached number on ...

'' album could be released. This included listing

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini, ; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flautist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Award ...

as co-author, because it was alleged that Shaggy sampled the "

Peter Gunn ''Peter Gunn'' is an American private eye television series, starring Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn with Lola Albright as his girlfriend, Edie Hart. The series aired on NBC from September 22, 1958, to 1960 and on ABC in 1960–1961. The seri ...

" theme song. Dr. John Folkes never agreed to this. The group recorded an album with Jah D replacing the head, founder, composer and creator of the group John Folkes in 2011. John's older brother Mico started a new group that was not related to the original Folkes Brothers, as that original group was created by John and neither Junior nor Mico were responsible for the creation of original group, or the songs, "Oh Carolina" and "I Met a Man", as both were written and composed by John, with Mico and Junior singing back up. Mico, the elsest, was known as the " Carolina Man" in the early 60s locally as he often took credit for "Oh Carolina" although he had nothing to do with its writing or composition. John Folkes passed away August 29, 2022 at the age of 80.

Discography

Singles

*"Oh Carolina" (1961)

Albums

*''Don't Leave Me Darling'' (2011)

References

Jamaican ska groups {{Caribbean-band-stub