John Holt: Police in Helicopter [VP]

Why you'll love it

This Greensleeves reissue presents the original ten-song album recorded at Channel One in Kingston. The title track has passed 54 million Spotify plays and turned up in Grand Theft Auto IV.

About the album

John Holt spent the 1970s as reggae's great romantic. He'd written "The Tide Is High" for the Paragons, scored the biggest-selling Jamaican record of 1972 with "Stick By Me" and crooned his way through the 1,000 Volts of Holt series. In 1983 he teamed up with the hottest producer in Kingston and toughened things up.

Henry "Junjo" Lawes put Holt in Channel One Studios with the Roots Radics, and the grooves are heavy and spacious. Holt wrote the title track on a flight from Montego Bay to Kingston after seeing police helicopters over burning fields in the hills, and it became a protest anthem. "Fat She Fat" was another big hit, and Lawes also wrote "Beach Party." "Private Doctor," "Last Train" and "Sugar And Spice" show the old sweet voice is still very much in working order.

The song has lived many lives since, from a Sizzla version to Protoje's sample on "Protection" and newer takes by Jah9 and Yaadcore, and Holt was made a Commander of the Order of Distinction in 2004. Proof that the smoothest voice in Jamaica could make a protest song without once raising it.

Also at Kops: more John Holt on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On Greensleeves (cat# GREL 58), a reissue of the 1983 album.