Songs People Should Hear

[Music Head]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCUcbRTB6Rs

from wikipedia

"My Boy Lollipop" is a song written in the mid-1950s and usually credited to Robert Spencer, Morris Levy and Johnny Roberts. It was originally recorded by the American singer Barbie Gaye and became a minor Rhythm & Blues hit in late 1956, spelled "My Boy Lollypop" on the original 78 record label. It is most famous, however, for the 1964 recording by Jamaican singer Millie Small which is considered the first international ska hit.

The song was discovered by Chris Blackwell, who was trying to find songs for Millie Small to record. Millie's version was recorded in a ska/bluebeat-style, and in 1964 it became her breakthrough blockbuster hit in the United Kingdom, reaching #2. It also went to #1 in Republic of Ireland and #2 in the United States (on the Smash Record label). "My Boy Lollipop" was the first record to help Blackwell's Jamaican label, Island Records, make millions. With over seven million copies sold, it remains one of the best-selling reggae/ska hits.

The record's arrangement is credited to Ernest Ranglin, who also plays guitar on the recording. A persistent rumor claims the not yet famous Rod Stewart performed the harmonica solo on the recording; Contrary to legend, the harmonica player was not Rod Stewart but Jimmy Powell of The Five Dimensions (previously a member of The Rockin' Berries). Powell personally asserts that it was he, not fellow Five Dimensions member Pete Hogman, who played this solo, contrary to many citations.

British reggae DJ David Rodigan has stated that watching Millie Small perform the song at the Ready Steady Go! TV show as a school boy initiated his life-long passion for Jamaican music.

Millie (born Millicent Small, 6 October 1946, Clarendon, Jamaica) was often known as "Little Millie Small", and in the United States as "Millie Small", and is best known as the singer of the 1964 hit, "My Boy Lollipop".

Millie is the daughter of a sugar plantation overseer. In her teens, she and Roy Panton recorded for Coxsone Dodd's Studio One record label as 'Roy and Millie.' They had a minor local hit with "We'll Meet".

In late 1963 she went to Forest Hill, London to make her fourth recording, an Ernest Ranglin rearrangement of "My Boy Lollipop", which had seen original release by Barbie Gaye in late 1956. Released in March 1964, Small's cover was a massive hit, reaching number two both in the UK Singles Chart and in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the chart in Australia. Initially it sold over 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Including singles sales, album usage and compilation inclusions, the song has since sold more than seven million copies worldwide.

"My Boy Lollipop" was doubly significant in British pop music history. It was the first major hit for Island Records (although it was actually released via Fontana Records because Chris Blackwell, Island's owner, did not want to overextend the label's then-meagre resources; in the U.S. the record appeared on the Smash Records subsidiary of Mercury Records), and Small was the first artist to have a hit that was recorded in the bluebeat style. (She was billed as 'The Blue Beat Girl' on the single's label in the U.S.) This was a music genre that had recently emerged from Jamaica, and which, as with ska, was a direct ancestor of reggae.

Millie continued to tour and perform up to the early 1970s.

My boy Lollipop
You make my heart go giddyup
You are as sweet as candy
You're my sugar dandy
Whoa oh, my boy Lollipop
Never ever leave me
Because it would grieve me
My heart told me so
I love you, I love you, I love you so
But I don't want you to know
I need you, I need you, I need you so
And I'll never let you go
My boy Lollipop
You make my heart go giddyup
You set the world on fire
You are my one desire
Whoa, my Lollipop
I love you, I love you, I love you so
But I don't want you to know
I need you, I need you, I need you so
And I'll never let you go
My boy Lollipop
You make my heart go giddyup
You set the world on fire
You are my one desire
Whoa, my Lollipop
Whoa, my Lollipop
My boy Lollipop
My boy Lollipop
My boy Lollipop