Marcia Aitken - “I’m Still In Love” - 1977, Marcia recorded this song when she was in highschool. It reached number 1 in Jamaica that year and she followed it with another number 1 in 1978. In 1981 she graduated highschool and retired from music, moved to Brooklyn, and ran a restaurant with her husband.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - “Could You Be Loved” - 1980, If you don’t know who Bob is, I don’t know what to tell you.

Jungle - “Beat 54” - 2018, This song is a groove. Jungle was started by two British producers, Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland. The cool thing about them, is even though they could tour and just play off laptops like other producers, they put together a band to tour with and they play all of their songs live.

Nicky Thomas - “Lonely Feeling” - 1970, Cover of the 1st half of the song “Lonely Feeling/New Mother Nature” by The Guess Who which was released earlier the same year on the album American Woman.

Manu Chao - “Bongo Bong” - 1998, Manu Chao might be an acquired taste for some, by I love him. He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Greek - sometimes all on the same album. Bongo Bong is probably one of his more known songs.

Big up - “Deixa o Amor” - 2017, From Sao Paulo, Brazil. I found these guys initially because they did a collab or two with Seu Jorge (that dude playing the acoustic guitar in The Life Aquatic covering David Bowie songs).

Bobby McFerrin - “Don’t Worry Be Happy” - 1988, Bobby McFerrin is a national treasure. If you don’t know this song, you are in for a treat. It won Song of the Year and Record of the Year in the 1989 Grammy’s. He also made my favorite commercial that I remember as a kid in 1988 for Levi’s 501 jeans.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - “Is This Love” - 1978

Sinkane - “Favorite Song” - 2017, Sinkane (Ahmed Gallab)is a Sudanese American musician with studio music credits with Caribou, of Montreal, Born Ruffians, and Yeasayer for all of you indie rock fans. He also has a William Onyeabor (see below) cover band called Atomic Bomb! which is somewhat of a “super group” since it consists of David Byrne (Talking Heads), Money Mark (Beastie Boys), Dam Albarn (Blur and Gorillaz), Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and Pharoah Sanders, and others.

The Cat Empire - “Hello” - 2003, Shout out to my Aussie friend, Loz, from my Paris days for introducing me to this band. From Melbourne, they are a funk, jazz, ska, rock, latin combo. They put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Barrington Levy (feat. Bounty Killer) - “Living Dangerously” - 1998, Barrington has collaborated with a ton of famous musicians - Snoop Dogg, Slightly Stoopid, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Gorillaz to name a few. He is #119 on Rolling Stone 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - “Coming in From the Cold” - 1980, Don’t know why, but I don’t remember hearing this song until recently.

Quantic & Nicodemus - “Mi Swing Es Tropical” - 2008? I honestly don’t know much about these guys except they are Brazilian. I found this song a long time ago off of a Jimmy Buffett random playlist.

Hector Lavoe & Willie Colon - “La Murga” - 1970, Hector and Willie are iconic by themselves as well as together. Kings of Puerto Rican salsa. Hector started his career as the singer for Willie Colon’s band (Willie was a trumpet player). By 1973 Hector went solo, but still made guest appearances with Willie, as well as the Fania All Stars. One of his most notable performances was with the Fania All Stars at the infamous boxing match “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. You can find a live recording of this.

Gregory Isaacs - “Night Nurse” - 1982, One of the kings of Reggae, and called “the most exquisite vocalist in reggae” by the NYT. He recorded fairly consistently from 1968 through 2010.

Ini Kamoze - “Here Comes the Hotstepper” - 1994, 90’s kids should know this song. Also Dr. Dog did a pretty decent cover recently.

Ze Roberto - “Lotus 72 D” - 1973, This song was written as a tribute to Formula 1 driver, Emerson Fittipaldi, who was world champion in 1972. There is also a fast version of this song.

Luciano & Lady G - “Bounty Lover” - 2006, You may not know him, but Luciano is a superstar in the contemporary reggae scene. He has multiple Grammy nominations for Best Reggae Album.

Phyllis Dillon - “Perfidia” - 1972, Another Jamaican woman reggae artist that made a major impact, albeit having a short career. She started recording at age 19 in 1965, and despite having multiple hits, never made any money in Jamaica off of her recordings due to contracts. She moved to New York in 1967 and recorded a few solo albums (this song being on one of them), but it was not her main profession - she worked at a bank.

Courtney John - “Lucky Man” - 2009, I heard this for the first time in the movie “Chef” (John Favreau). He is also a song writer and producer and has worked with Nelly Furtado, Michael Franti, and others.

Marcia Griffiths - “Don’t Let Me Down” - 2006, Marcia, unlike the other women reggae artists on this list, had a prolific career. She started in reggae, and was part of Bob Marley’s circle of musician friends, as well as performing with the Wailers as a backup singer. When Marley passed in 1981, she recorded a few solo records. One of these was the “Electric Boogie” which is the song that the hit wedding song “Electric Slide” is based on. She continued to make funk and dancehall records all the way through 2019.

Harry Nilsson - “Coconut” - 1971, You should know this song already. Harry Nilsson is one of the most underrated musicians in recent American rock and roll history. Part of the reason is he really didn’t perform live minus a few occasions. He was massively close to the Beatles, and they even called him “the American Beatle,” and recorded a collaborative album with John and Ringo called “Pussy Cats”

William Onyeabor - “Atomic Bomb” - 1978, This is an A-Rice find. William had a somewhat crazy life. He was born into a poor family in Nigeria, but worked his way to be successful enough to study record manufacturing in Europe. It is also said that he studied cinematography in Russia. In 1985 he became a born again Christian and totally disavowed his music career and refused to speak about it ever again.

Prince Fatty & Hollie Cook - “Milk and Honey” - 2007, This guy’s real name is Mike Pelanconi and he is a dub music aficionado. No not dub-step. Dub is a mix of reggae and hip hop. This song is off his debut album which featured a lot of big names in contemporary reggae and dub, including Hollie Cook of the band Slits.

John Holt - “Mr. Bojangles” - 1973, Cover of one of the greatest country songs of all time, Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles”. John Holt was originally part of the famous late 60s Jamaican group Paragons.

Sister Nancy - “Bam Bam” - 1982, The swagger of this woman is unbeatable. Probably my favorite female reggae MC on this list. She was one of 15 kids in a musical family. The most famous being her brother “Brigadier” Jerry. She started performing at 15. This song was originally recorded by Toots and the Maytals, but her version is more popular and more commonly used in samples.

Tenor Saw - “Ring the Alarm” - 1985, Tenor Saw did not have a long career - he was killed in a hit and run in Houston, Tx (though it was rumored to be a murder/hit) after only less than 5 years as a professional musician. Despite this, he is considered one of the most influential Dancehall singjays. Dancehall is known for using digital samples of “riddims” from classic reggae songs. The “riddim” is from a “Stalag 17” which coincidently was also used in Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam” above. It was also sampled by Public Enemy’s “Don’t Believe the Hype,” and Too Short’s “Blowjob Betty”.

Brazilian Girls - “Pussy”- 2005, Skip this one for the kids. The Brazilian Girls are not Brazilian and there is only one girl in the band. Honestly, I recognize that the lyrics to this song are ridiculous. But it is catchy af.

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band - “PIMP” - 2016, You’ll recognize this. Trust me. And it’s awesome.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - “Lively Up Yourself” - 1974

Peter Tosh - “Coming in Hot” - 1988, Peter Tosh was formerly a founding member of the Wailers before splitting and developing a very successful solo career. He and Bob Marley are probably the two most influential reggae artists that brought reggae to the mainstream.

Toots & The Maytals - “Pressure Drop” - 1969, Not quite as prolific as Bob Marley or Peter Tosh, but no less influential in the reggae scene. Technically his work is a pre-reggae called Ska - not to be confused with the abomination that ska is today, but contemporary ska was heavily based on this. Toots had a long music career, recording with huge artists like Eric Clapton, No Doubt, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, and the Roots - all on one album. Unfortunately he was claimed by COVID in 2020.

Mano Negra - “Guayaquil City” - 1989, Mano Negra was the original band of Manu Chao above, formed with his brother. You can hear the beginnings of the ideas that form Manu’s more recent music. It is equally a melting pot of different cultures.

Lord Echo - “Thinking of You” - 2010, Lord Echo (Mike August or Mike Fabulous) is another dub aficionado. Despite this sounding like a mix of more modern beats with a vintage recording of vocals, the vocals are a recent recording and cover of Sister Sledge’s song of the same name.

Willie Wright - “Nantucket Island” - 1977, This is another classic A-Rice find. Willie Wright made his living as a resort performer up and down the east coast - Boston, Nantucket, Providence mainly. He recorded the album Telling the Truth, which this song is from, in New York in 1977 after being trapped on Nantucket Island for the winter. He stayed pretty obscure until this album was re-released in 2011, after which he achieved more fame than the previous 35 years combined.

The Frightnrs - “Gonna Make Time” - 2016, These guys got their start in New York City and play a near perfect homage to classic reggae and rocksteady sounds. Unfortunately, after their signing with Daptone Records and recording of the album Nothing More to Say, the front man tragically passed away a few months before it’s release.