MILLIE SMALL the lollipop girl

Laurence Cane-Honeysett celebrates the singer who first made the world aware of Jamaican music

Amy Winehouse has claimed it is one of her all-time favourite records, while celebrated reggae DJ, David Rodigan, and revered writer John Masouri credit the disc as being the spark that ignited their life-long love of Jamaican music, and they’re certainly far from being alone. Millie Small’s My Boy Lollipop has provided the starting point for many fans and collectors like myself on a lifelong love of ska and its immediate progenies, rock steady and reggae, and while there are many who consider it little more than a novelty item, it is in fact a record of considerable historic significance.

It is the ska equivalent of Elvis’ Heartbreak Hotel or the Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen – the disc that popularised a sound previously considered to be on the margins of mainstream consciousness. Sure, it wasn’t created in a small, sweaty studio in the heart of downtown Kingston, but its astounding global success not only opened the way for the likes of Bob Marley, Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff to make their name on the international stage, but also was instrumental in turning Island Records into one of the most successful players in the popular music industry.

Millicent ‘Dolly May’ Small’s story began in the district of Clarendon, a parish located in the south of …

by Laurence Cane-Honeysett
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