b. 27 March 1940, Stewarton, Jamaica, West Indies. Morgan's recording career stretches back to the birth of the Jamaican record industry at the end of the 50s. The young singer, who had first performed in public in 1957, recorded "Lover Boy" and "Oh My" for Duke Reid's Treasure Isle imprint. An imposing figure, invariably topped with an almost brimless pork-pie hat, Morgan's cool, hip and rhythmic voice, enlivened by the occasional excited yelp, was successfully applied to a variety of styles in those formative years, such as the Latin beat of "Fat Man" (1960), the gospel fervour of "I Pray For You" (1960), and the shuffling R&B of his Jamaican Independence anthem, "Forward March" (1962). Morgan also duetted with female singer Patsy Todd on a series of Shirley And Lee-styled numbers, including the big Jamaican and UK hit "Housewives' Choice". He settled into a ska style with "Shake A Leg" (1961) and other recordings for Prince Buster. His split from Buster to join Leslie Kong's Beverley's Records, led to an entertaining and successful exchange of insults on singles such as Morgan's "Blazing Fire" and Buster's unequivocal "Blackhead China Man" (Buster resented the idea of the Jamaican music industry being controlled by non-blacks).

Listen to Derrick Morgan at Finetune.

• Forward March
• Fat Man
• Festival Ten
• Hold You Jack
• Oh My!

• The Skatalites
• The Specials
• The Heptones
• Gregory Isaacs
• Toots And The Maytals
• Madness
• John Holt
• Hepcat
• Desmond Dekker
• Jimmy Cliff
• The Toasters
• Desmond, Dekker & The Aces
• Bad Manners
• Peter Tosh
• Alton Ellis
• Bob Marley & The Wailers
• Burning Spear
• Laurel Aitken
• Dennis Alcapone
• Horace Andy

• knatti
• shakedown13
• sixfootsix
• Giulio81