Phyllis Dillion

Phyllis Dillon was born in 1948 in Linstead, St. Catherine, Jamaica. Dillion began singing in talent contests. It was during a performance at the Glass Bucket Club in Kingston, Jamaica with the group The Vulcans, that Duke Reid's session guitarist Lynn Taitt discovered Dillon.

Dillon was 19 when she recorded her first record for Duke Reid. In 1967, Reid released Dillon's "Don’t Stay Away", an original composition featuring Tommy McCook and the Supersonics as the backing band.

. While most of Dillon’s subsequent recordings would be covers of popular and obscure American songs including Bettye Swann’s "Make Me Yours", Perry Como’s "Tulips and Heather," The Grass Roots’ “Midnight Confessions” and Stephen Stills’s  “Love the One You’re With”.

Another original song, "It’s Rocking Time" would later be turned into the Alton Ellis’ hit "Rocksteady".

While these early recordings demonstrate Dillon's mastery of the Rocksteady sound, a much slower, soulful, response to the sultry weather that made ska's upbeat rhythm and tempo undesirable even impracticable, it was no indication of her greatest performance, 1967’s “Perfidia”, a 1940 song written by Alberto Domínguez and made popular by the Cuban bandleader, Xavier.

Patsy Millicent Todd

Patsy Millicent Todd

For most of the early 1960s, Millicent 'Patsy' Todd was the teen star of Ska. She recorded numerous duets with vocalist Derrick Morgan and Stranger Cole. Her biggest hits with Stranger Cole included the “When I Call Your Name” and “Give Me The Right”, which were done for producer Arthur 'Duke' Reid.

Todd was born in the west Kingston community of Fletcher's Land, the child of a Cuban father and Jamaican mother. She had no recording experience when Derrick Morgan approached her to record “Love Not To Brag” for Reid in 1959. At the time, she was 15 years old and a student at the All Saints All-Age School.

Her neighbor, Cecil 'Prince Buster' Campbell, was her musical connection. Derrick Morgan, who was three years older, was a rising star. “Love Not To Brag” did well, but it was “Housewife's Choice” that scored big and helped establish Kong's Beverley's Records.

Todd went on to even greater acclaim with Cole, who also hailed from west Kingston. They recorded “When I Call Your Name” and “Give Me The Right” taking off on radio and at dances.
Derrick Morgan and Patsy Todd also recorded "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" and "Feel So Fine"

Other recordings included "Love so divine", "Its So Hard Without You", and "Don't Want To be Hurt" with Stranger Cole.

Todd also recorded as a solo act for producer Sonia Pottinger, and performed with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires in the US. She was among a handful of female acts that stood out in the Ska period. As the Ska craze waned, Todd felt it was time to call it a day. "We weren't being paid, it was like working for nothing. Artists were getting something like £5 a side those days," she explained. Todd has not been given her due as a pioneer, but says she has never felt slighted. "To be honest, it's not something I ever think about," she said. Her last major performance took place in 2005 at the popular Stars R Us oldies series in Kingston, on which she reunited with Morgan and Cole.