Marcia Griffiths: Naturally (1978)

The "queen of reggae" updates her Studio One hits for the roots era with producer Sonia Pottinger.

Griffiths recorded most of these tunes for the first time at Studio One  in the late 1960s when she was still in her teens. They were written by Keith Anderson, aka Bob Andy, with whom she formed a successful duo later on ("Young, Gifted And Black"). Her solo career paused for a few years after she joined Bob Marley's background singers the I Threes. Naturally was kind of a comeback.

If anything, Marcia's voice is even stronger and more assured here than it was on the original versions. There's no denying the charm of her girl-ish voice on the 1960s recordings, but after years of experience, Marcia's technique had evolved considerably: she had much better control now on what she was doing, how she was using her vocal possibilities.

The backing band remodels the original rhythms for the roots era, but stays relatively close to the initial arrangements. Most noticeable are the details that were changed: the organ playing the Wedding March on the original version of Truly is far less dominant in the new version, the deep male voice saying "ya ya" on the early recording of Feel Like Jumping is missing etc.

Not all songs aged too well, however. The simple lyrics of Truly, Mark My Word and a few others - typically starry-eyed 1960s pop lyrics of the I-Love-You,-Marry-Me type - must have seemed a little naive and dated even in 1978. But that's just a minor quibble.


Some may find the whole idea of re-recording the Studio One hits totally superfluous. But i love both the original versions and these reworkings. If one's not too fond of the often realtively poor sound and reverb-heavy production of so much Studio One material, these "cleaner" new versions are a true joy.

P.S.: The Studio One versions can be found on a cd called - surprise - "Marcia Griffíths at Studio One". I couldn't find an active link for it on any blog, though. Yet they can all be heard on youtube.

Marcia Griffiths: Naturally
Disc Pressers DP 1003 (JA, 1978?); Sky Note‎ SKY LP 9 (UK, 1978); Shanachie 44014 (US, 1992); also issued as "Dreamland" on Dreadlock Holiday DH006 (NL, 2001)

1 Dreamland (Bunny Wailer) 3:21
2 Tell Me Now 3:42
3 Truly 2:35
4 Mark My Word 2:56
5 Stay 4:28
6 Feel Like Jumping 4:06
7 Lonesome Feeling (Bob Marley) 4:24
8 Survival (Renford Cogle/Brent Dowe) 3:21
9 Melody Life 3:15
10 I've Got To Go Back Home 4:49

All tracks written by Keith Anderson, except as noted.

Bass – Ranchie; Drums – Sly; Guitar – Dougie; Keyboards – Wire; Percussion, Keyboards – Ansel Collins; Saxophone [Alto] – Herman Marquis; Saxophone [Tenor] – Glen DaCosta; Trombone – Trammie; Trumpet – Bobby Ellis

Producer – S.E. Pottinger
Engineer – Errol Brown