Pe­ter Ray Blood

Back in the '80s, one much-lis­tened-too disc jock­ey had an aver­sion to play­ing lo­cal mu­sic, es­pe­cial­ly ca­lyp­so. In his de­fence, he said lo­cal­ly pro­duced mu­sic was of an in­fe­ri­or qual­i­ty when com­pared to the for­eign fare he rel­ished and fed his lis­ten­ing pub­lic with.

Com­posers and artistes con­tin­ue to lob­by for the in­tro­duc­tion of quo­ta laws which man­date lo­cal ra­dio sta­tions to play a pro­por­tion­ate quo­ta of lo­cal mu­sic, not un­like the law which ex­ists in Cana­da. Pri­or to the mid '70s, be­fore the ad­vent of so­ca mu­sic, lo­cal com­posers and mu­si­cians pro­duced a pletho­ra of ex­cel­lent lo­cal pop and R&B?mu­sic. Back then, as ca­lyp­so mu­sic was wrapped in moth­balls at the start of the Lenten sea­son, break­ing for St Joseph Day, and be­ing pushed in­to the back­ground for the rest of the year, lo­cal pop and R&B?was the mu­sic that swung show­places, like De Luxe Cin­e­ma.

It was the era of the com­bo and the big guns then in­clud­ed Cas­sanovas, Rock­er­fel­las, Group So­lo, Bert Bai­ley & The Jets and Kalyan. Then, there were the singing groups, like Strollers, Blue Veils, Sparks, Venus plus X, and Dave Flav­erny & The Lu­natics, and singers ga­lore like Ju­nior By­ron, Rolf Mar­cial, Jack­ie Won­der, Oliv­er "Stumpy"?Chap­man, Tony Wil­son, Bert Clarke, Ellsworth &?Jer­ry James, Car­ol Ad­di­son, Mavis John, Ann Marie In­niss, Denyse Plum­mer,

Pat Bap­tiste and Jen­ny Pa­keera.

A ma­jor phe­nom­e­non of this pe­ri­od was Pop Gear com­pe­ti­tion. The Kisskidee Kar­a­van of the 60s, Pop Gear un­earthed tremen­dous young tal­ent from across the na­tion, many of them suc­ceed­ing in se­cur­ing record­ing con­tracts with the ma­jor stu­dios of the day, like KH and Coral Sounds.

It's a mon­u­men­tal chal­lenge to try, from mem­o­ry, to com­pile a list of the most pop­u­lar 50 lo­cal pop and R&B?sin­gles, cir­ca 1962-2012. So, I sourced a num­ber of knowl­edgable mu­sic gu­rus, in­clud­ing Phil "D Thrill" Sim­monds, Sookram "Ul­ti­mate Se­lec­tor"?Ali and Ger­ald Agos­ti­ni and picked their grey mat­ter to come up with fol­low­ing list. The list­ing is of com­po­si­tions dat­ed be­tween the 60s to the ear­ly 90s, and does not in­clude hits from be­yond that, in­clud­ing those from the Kiskidee Kar­a­van era.

Top 50 Tri­ni/Trop­i­cal R&B, pop songs:

cir­ca 1960s - ear­ly 1990s

(com­piled by Pe­ter Ray Blood)

1 Wan­na Make Love To You - Nadie La Fond

2 You Are What Love Is - Mave & Dave (Mavis John & Dave El­cock)

3 Cryin's Easy - Ju­nior By­ron

4 Dream Of Me - Mac & Katie Kissoon

5 Can You Love Me - Kalyan

6 Born To Shine - Car­ol Ad­di­son

7 Just When I Need­ed You Most - Tony Wil­son

8 Try Mak­ing Love - Wild­fire

9 White Horse - Fire­flight

10 Sweet So­ca Song - Robin Imamshah & Trinidad

11 Ebony Girl - Richard "Nap­py" May­ers

12 Say A Lit­tle Prayer (For The Chil­dren) - Wild­fire

13 What You Won't Do For Love - Char­maine Forde

14 How Can I Love Again - Mavis John

15 Imag­ine - Car­ol Ad­di­son

16 The Right One - Con­rad Wal­rond

17 Black Man Pray - Bert Lynch

18 Ole Man Riv­er - Wild­fire

19 Base­ment Par­ty - An­dre Tanker

20 I Will Be Your Friend - Mavis John

21 Come By Here – Mavis John

22 Fool In Love - Fire Flight

23 Tush Mush – Bil­ly Re­ece

24 Check It Out - Wild­fire

25 For­ev­er Young - Tony Wil­son

26 Take Me With You - Oliv­er Chap­man

27 Babe - Jen­ny Pa­keera

28 Heav­en - Michael Booth­man

29 Ba­by I Love Your Way - Pat­ti Charles

30 Sun­day Morn­ing - Pe­ter Brit­to

31 Come On Down - Wild­fire

32 Trinidad Boo­gie - Last Sup­per

33 The Strug­gle – Do­ri­an "Ver­sa­tile"?Hec­tor

34 Take Me Back - Car­ol Ad­di­son

35 We're All God's Chil­dren - Wild­fire

36 Sexy La­dy You - Jack­ie Won­der

37 Rock-A-Bye Ba­by Love - Stephen Enci­nas

38 Is­land Sun­shine - Richard "Nap­py"?May­ers

39 3 Way Sit­u­a­tion - Nadie La Fond

40 Too Much Pres­sure On The Kid - Jack­ie Won­der

41 Oh Lord, Why Lord – Bil­ly Re­ece

42 And The Lord Said - Mac & Katie Kissoon

43 Love To Dad­dy - Wild­fire

44 You Are What I've Wait­ed For - Denyse Plum­mer

45 Ap­ple Of My Eye - Mave & Dave

46 On­ly What You Steal - Tony Wil­son

47 Life Is A Strug­gle - Hamil­ton Broth­ers

48 Mu­sic Makes The World Go 'Round - Hamil­ton Broth­ers

49 Pres­sure - Carl &?Car­ol

50 Dis­co Reg­gae (Tony's Groove) - Kalyan