AMG Review of Rudy Got Soul: The Complete Early Years 1963-1968

Al Campbell
All Music Guide

Rudy Got Soul: The Complete Early Years 1963-1968 chronicles Desmond Dekker's first single from 1963, "Honour Your Father and Mother," through his enormously successful Jamaican hits recorded in the mid- to late '60s with the Aces. The disc highlights the outset of rocksteady with the tracks "Hey Grandma," "Music Like Dirt," "Rudie Got Soul," "Sabotage," "Rude Boy Train," and the James Bond-inspired "007." These are the tracks that initially made him a star in Jamaica, then the U.K., and finally emerging as an internationally celebrated artist who hit it big in the U.S. with the Israelites in 1969. Highly recommended.