‘I have a dream that is not yet completed’ - Millie Small had plans of returning home to perform
Published:Sunday | May 17, 2020 | 8:54 AMRoy Black - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Millie Small, the first Jamaican vocalist in popular music to make the world stop and look at Jamaica as an emerging musical powerhouse, passed away in London on May 5. She was 72 years old.
Speaking to Small by telephone from her home in Shepherd’s Bush London in October of 2017, she confirmed that she was in fact born in October of 1947 in the parish of Clarendon. In a very lively interview, Small expressed optimism about returning home soon for shows. “I have a dream and that dream is not yet completed and I have to wait until that dream is completed before I can make that reappearance,” she said. Unfortunately that did not materialise.
Asked about her health, she was quick to respond, “I am well and feel as if I am 35”. It was difficult to doubt her, because she exuded that same shrill, slender, infectious voice that shot the pint-size music dynamo to international and perpetual prominence in 1964 with the recording of My Boy Lollipop – a remake of Barbie Gaye’s 1957 blues song. It was the first major hit for Island Records, although released on the Fontana label.
The recording became one of the biggest-selling ska songs of all time with more than seven million in sales, while climbing to No. 2 on both the UK singles and the US Hot 100 charts, and topping the charts in a number of European countries. According to Chris Blackwell, producer of the song, “She opened the door for Jamaican music to the world and the song became a hit pretty much everywhere in the world”.
Small’s earliest exposure to music came by way of The Vere Johns Opportunity Hour talent show as a 12-year-old at the Palladium Theatre in Montego Bay. She won the second prize of 30 shillings. Owen Gray, a seasoned music campaigner at the time, took her into studio for the first time to record in duet a song called Sugar Plum in 1961. Displaying a penchant for singing in duet with the opposite sex, Small partnered with Roy Panton the following year to register a massive ska hit – We’ll Meet – which topped the Jamaican charts and was numbered among the top 10 songs during the Independence celebrations of 1962. Blackwell immediately snapped her up and took her to England in 1963, ostensibly to further her career, but in reality to help establish his fledging Island Record Company.
“When Blackwell asked my parents’ permission and they agreed, I was a bit nervous because I did not know what to expect, so I just went and sat by myself, because although I always wanted to go to England, I could not believe it. Some people told me not to go, but since my mother agreed I listened to her,” Small, who had been 15 years old at the time, shared with me. She was placed in the custody of Blackwell and shipped away and, as it turned out, the mission was a success.
Although considered Jamaican, My Boy Lollipop was in essence an English recording done with English musicians, with perhaps guitarist Ernie Ranglin being the only Jamaican. According to Ranglin: “Chris thought that it was a good idea. He believed that it was fitting for Millie and that the song would last for years.” It certainly did, and in the process placed Small in the unique category of being, perhaps, the most important person in early Jamaican popular music.
The female dynamo didn’t have another big hit, although with Sweet William, Oh Henry and a couple of duets with label mate Wilfred Edwards, she remained a favourite with the English. In 2011, she was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD) by the Government of Jamaica.