Delroy Wilson & Ken Boothe: Sarge/Unlimited, 2CD

• 13 tracks new to CD.
• Includes numerous 70s reggae classics.
• Features two of Jamaican music’s most popular performers of all time.

After first becoming established on the Jamaican music scene as a 13-year-old in the early 1960s, Delroy Wilson enjoyed major successes throughout the remainder of the decade and beyond, but by the mid-70s, his career had begun to stall, partly due to his reluctance to join many of his established peers in embracing the Rastafarianism.

But salvation was at hand in the form of his old friend and former Studio One colleague, Lloyd Charmers, who by this time was riding high on the reggae scene as one of Jamaica’s most successful hit-makers, having produced major hits by a variety of local artists, including Ken Boothe whose ‘Everything I Own’ and ‘Crying Over You’ had ridden high on pop charts around the globe in 1974.

Two years later, the first best-seller to emerge from the Wilson-Charmers collaborations was a compelling version of Bob Marley’s ‘I’m Still Waiting’, which sold in its thousands among the island’s record buyers as well as fans of the developing lovers rock sound in the UK.

Further popular 7” singles by the singer swiftly followed, notably sublime versions of the Bob Andy-penned ‘I Don’t Want To See You Cry’ and Ben E. King’s ‘Imagination’, as well the excellent self-penned ‘My Cecelia’. The popularity of the recordings prompted Charmers to permanently relocate to London and the following year he issued what proved to be one of the biggest-selling reggae long-players of the 1970: ‘Sarge’.

Officially unavailable for decades, the album is finally available on CD for only the second time ever, with its original track-listing bolstered by previously unreleased 12” mixes from vaults of Trojan Records.

The collection is further enhanced by the second disc comprising another classic Charmers- produced album, Ken Boothe’s ‘Boothe Unlimited’ which is further augmented by rare and long-lost extended mixes, all which feature on CD for the first time.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
DELROY WILSON ‘SARGE’
1 I’m Still Waiting
2 My Conversation
3 Moving Away
4 I Don’t Want To See You Cry
5 My Cecilia
6 Ain’t That Loving You
7 Got A Date
8 Everybody Needs Love
9 Green Green Grass Of Home
10 Too Late For The Learning
BONUS TRACKS
11 Imagination (12” mix) *
12 I’m Still Waiting (12” mix) *
13 I Don’t Want To See You Cry (12” mix) *
14 My Cecelia (12” mix) *
15 Green, Green Grass Of Home (12” mix) *

DISC TWO
KEN BOOTHE ‘UNLIMITED’
1 I’m The One That Love Forgot / Intro Drums & Bass
2 Missing You / And The Rest Of The Instruments
3 Look What You’ve Done To Me / You’ve Broken The Guitar
4 Second Chance / To Get Rhythm
5 Ain’t No Sunshine / Only Precaution
BONUS TRACKS
6 That’s The Way Nature Planned It (12” mix) *
7 Leaving Me (12” mix) *
8 I’m Falling In Love With You (12” mix) *
9 Let Go (12” mix) *
10 Now You Can See Me Again (12” mix) *
11 Walk Away From Love (12” mix) *
12 You To Me Are Everything (12” mix) *
* New to CD