Song:Here I Am Baby
Album:Souled On Reggae
Some of the best reggae singles were covers of R & B hits. This 1974 cover of Al Green's Here I Am Baby was a hit in Jamaica and England. It was the only hit for singer Al Brown. He was a one time member of The Paragons probably just as they were disbanding in the late 60s. He recorded a couple of singles as Irvin Brown. Meanwhile, session bassist Lloyd Parks formed the band Skin, Flesh & Bones. Parks had previously been in The Termites and The Techniques but mostly he was a studio musician for Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid. Sly Dunbar played drums in Skin, Flesh & Bones before he started his long partnership with Robbie Shakespeare. Other band members were Ansel Collins on keyboards and Radcliffe "Dougie" Bryan on guitar. When they weren't in the studio, Skin, Flesh & Bones played at the Kingston club Tit For Tat. Al Brown performed with the band occasionally. Club owner Dickie Wong liked Brown's performance of Here I Am Baby so much that he agreed to finance a recording. The single was a hit in Jamaica and then in England. UB40's 1990 recording of Here I Am Baby is a tribute to Brown's version. Skin, Flesh & Bones even toured England on the strength of the single. You can get here I Am Baby on this various artists budget CD of reggae R & B covers from Music Club. Brown recorded an album but he was never able to repeat the success of Here I Am Baby. Parks went back to studio work and he has been a significant behind the scenes figure in Jamaican music for decades. Here's a video for Here I Am Baby by Al Brown.
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