Desmond Dekker: Essential Artist Collection [TROJAN]

Why you'll love it

Trojan's single-LP best-of, fourteen tracks pressed on eco vinyl. "Israelites" topped the UK chart in 1969 and made Desmond Dekker reggae's first international star, and "007 (Shanty Town)", "It Mek" and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" are here too.

This edition

• Fourteen-track compilation
• Eco vinyl pressing
• Fourteen tracks across two sides, from "Israelites" to "Jamaica Ska"

About the album

Before Bob Marley went global, Desmond Dekker was Jamaican music's man abroad. "007 (Shanty Town)", with its rude-boy swagger, was a hit in Britain in 1967, and two years later "Israelites" went all the way to number one there and into the American top ten, the first Jamaican record to do so much. Dekker made it all look effortless: that high, clear voice, The Aces singing behind him and a beat you couldn't sit still to.

This collection runs through the hits and the deeper favourites: "It Mek", "Fu Man Chu", "King Of Ska", Jimmy Cliff's "You Can Get It If You Really Want", and back to the early ska of "Jamaica Ska". It's the best single record of his work you can buy. Skinheads, mods and everyone's dad have all claimed him at one time or another; there's plenty to go round.

Tracklist

Listen

Out October 23, 2026 on Trojan (cat# 964257771).