15-16-17 Someone Special

OK, now heres an absolute BOOM SHOT..in the mid 70's Dennis Brown relocated to London, while there he linked up with Castro Brown (no relation) and started the DEB label. This occurred right at the same time a new style of Reggae called Lover's Rock was being popularized in the UK. Teenager Louisa Marks was riding high with blues party favorites like "6, Sixth Street" (that particular riddim was popularized again in the 90's with Fashion Records versions by Janet-Lee Davis and Peter Hunningale) "Caught you in a lie" and "Keep it Like It Is". Well, Dennis and Castro smelled a good thing (along with other producers like Leonard Chin, Lloyd Coxsone and Dennis Bovell) and put together three teenage girls from London, Sonia Willaims(15), Christine Mcnabb(16), and Wraydene Mcnabb(17) and had them record "Something Special" along with 9 other tracks that ended up on the "Magic Touch" L.P.

Now "Something Special" really is something special, for all you Dennis Brown fans you'll hear what I believe is the first version of "Something Special" which Dennis himself revisited in the 80's, and itself is a sweet lovers tune, but for me the 15-16-17 version is the definitive one. Castro Brown has repressed this L.P. and its not hard to find, check Ernie B's.

Also, a quick side note regarding Lovers Rock, I constantly see in the crates and online releases that say "Classic Lovers" , or "Lovers Rock" etc..you know most of these that I see are NOT real Lovers. Let me explain, the majority of so-called lovers releases that you find (especially in the US, not so much in the UK) are really what I would call "rub-a-dub", just because its a love song sung by Lukie D, or Mikey Spice, or whoever, doesn't make it "Lovers". A tune like "Sarah" by Frankie Paul is a great love song, great riddim, but its not Lovers. You could sum up Lovers in a nutshell and say it sounds like a Philly Soul ballad played over a fat reggae bassline, it usually has a soulful kind of intro, not just straight riddim like "rub-a-dub". Also as a generalization, the majority if not all Lovers releases come out of the UK, for reasons that I am not clear on, Lovers just never took hold in JA or NYC.