"Israelites" (Desmond Dekker & the Aces)

Recorded by Desmond Dekker with backing group the Aces, "Israelites" is widely remembered as one of the earliest Jamaican records to break through with British and American audiences, carrying the island's rocksteady-into-reggae sound to a vast new public. Its terse lyric about working-class hardship resonated far beyond Kingston. The cited source documents the Desmond Dekker recording.