Earl Sixteen

Born Earl Daley in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1958, the future vocalist first gained attention by triumphing in neighborhood talent contests. These successes led him to front the group Flaming Phonics before he cut his own composition “Malcolm X” for Joe Gibbs in 1975, a track Dennis Brown would later reinterpret. Two years afterward Daley entered the Boris Gardiner Happening, an affiliation that brought him to Lee Perry’s Black Ark studio. Between 1978 and 1979 he laid down four sides there and also encountered Heptones member Earl Morgan, who guided his first long-player, Singing Star.

His subsequent album was fashioned with broadcaster and DATC producer Mikey Dread, while stray 45s emerged on imprints run by Augustus Pablo (“Changing World”), Linval Thompson, Derrick Harriott and assorted others throughout the early eighties; one notable session paired him with the ex-Stur-Gav partnership of Ranking Joe and Jah Screw. By 1982–83 he had reached Studio One, where his third rendering of “Love Is A Feeling” was committed to tape—the earlier two versions having been voiced for Aston “Familyman” Barrett and Stafford Douglas. That rendering remains his best-loved song, and the Brentford Road dates supplied the material for Coxsone Dodd’s 1985 Showcase collection.

Shortly thereafter Daley aligned himself with Royals founder Roy Cousins, followed by periods with Skengdon and Blacka Dread (“Batman And Robin”) and Bert Douglas (“Problems”). After a two-year hiatus he reappeared in England in 1988, delivering a reading of Simply Red’s “Holding Back The Years” and briefly attempting self-production. In 1991–92 he worked at Ariwa Sounds, resulting in the album Babylon Walls plus several well-regarded singles for the Mad Professor. From that point he contributed vocals to an expanding roster of British producers with mixed outcomes and guested on recordings by Dread Zone and Leftfield. His first major-label outing arrived in 1997 with Steppin’ Out on WEA Records.