Songs that crossed over

Jimmy Cliff's 1969 ballad became a core song in the international reggae story through The Harder They Come soundtrack and later official catalogue circulation.

A Jamaican record label associated with the reggae era. Starter record pending editorial verification.

Jimmy Cliff (born James Chambers, 1944, Somerton District, Jamaica) is a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, songwriter and actor, and one of the music's most important international ambassadors. He starred in and provided songs for the influential 1972 film The Harder They Come, whose soundtrack helped bring reggae to a global audience, and is known for anthems such as "Many Rivers to Cross," "You Can Get It If You Really Want" and "The Harder They Come." He is one of only a small number of performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for reggae.

1970 single written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of the Melodians, setting Psalms 19 and 137 to reggae and Rastafari language; briefly kept off Jamaican radio over its Rastafari themes before becoming a foundation record, and reaching global audiences via the 1972 Harder They Come soundtrack album.

Ini Kamoze's 1994 crossover hit carried dancehall phrasing and the "na na na" hook into global pop charts.

A Jamaican record label associated with the reggae era. Starter record pending editorial verification.

Spanish Town-born singer (b. 1957) who first reached UK audiences with "World A Music" (1983) and became one of the few Jamaican artists ever to top the US Billboard Hot 100, when "Here Comes the Hotstepper" reached number one in 1995, a rare pop crossover for a dancehall-rooted record.

Desmond Dekker (Desmond Adolphus Dacres, 16 July 1941 - 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer who was among the first to bring the music to international charts. Recording with producer Leslie Kong and his backing group the Aces, he topped the UK chart with "Israelites" (1968), the first Jamaican-produced record to reach US and UK success, and also scored with "007 (Shanty Town)" and "It Mek.".

A 1969 follow-up to "Israelites" that shows Desmond Dekker's ska-to-reggae crossover moment under Trojan-era international circulation.

The Melodians were a rocksteady vocal group formed in Kingston's Greenwich Town area in 1963 by Tony Brevett, Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton. Recording for producers including Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid and Leslie Kong, they are best known for "Sweet Sensation" and "Rivers of Babylon," the latter adapted from Psalm 137 and later a global hit via the film The Harder They Come and Boney M's cover. Lead singer Brent Dowe (1946–2006) co-wrote several of the group's signature songs.

How Jamaican music crossed the water without leaving home.

Many of reggae's most durable solo careers started in someone else's harmony stack.

Britain's specialist shops were reggae's second engine.

A mid-1960s moral panic over Kingston's rudies played out, verse by verse, on record.