Jamaican teenager who introduced ska to the world
At the age of 17, Millie Small became the first Jamaican artist to have an international pop hit. Her exuberant cover of reached No. 2 in the UK and US charts in 1964, and sold more than six million copies. One of the first major hits for Chris Blackwell’s Island Records (though it was released on the Fontana label), it helped introduced ska music to a global audience, said The New York Times, and in so doing, paved the way for the likes of Bob Marley, “who would popularise ska’s rhythmic successor, reggae”.
Lollipop,
My
Millicent Dolly May Small was born in
Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1946, the youngest of
13 children. Her father worked on a sugar plantation. Aged 12 she came second in a talent contest, with a routine she’d devised to entertain her family, which led to the formation of her first band, Roy and Millie, with Roy Panton. They topped the Jamaican charts and when Blackwell (who had been brought up in Jamaica) heard her sing, he offered to become her manager. He had come across in the US. Originally written by one of the Cadillacs as
it had been a minor R&B hit for a young singer named Barbie Gaye in 1956. Blackwell took Small to London, where the
My Boy Lollipop
My Girl
Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin rearranged the song, replacing the sax with a harmonica. Small liked to recount that it was played by Rod Stewart – but he has denied this. Released in May 1964, it went straight into the UK Top Ten. She appeared on TV with The Beatles, then toured the world with Blackwell as her chaperone. The plane she flew on to the US was dubbed the Lollipop Special by a clever publicist, said The Guardian. On arrival, she was greeted by screaming fans and given what was said to be the world’s largest lollipop. On a stop-off in Jamaica, she was taken by police escort to meet the prime minister. Small handled it all with aplomb, Blackwell recalled. “It was just incredible,” he said. “She was such a sweet person: very funny, great sense of humour. She was really special.”
She never had another hit like it, and though she continued to perform, she ended up losing most of her money, and was briefly homeless. Learning of this, Blackwell bought her a house. In 1984, she had a child, and for years after that she devoted most of her energies to her daughter. “My daughter and I are very close and I’m proud of her achievements as a writer, singer and musician,” Small told an interviewer in 2016. She had happy memories of the 1960s, she said, but was “looking to the future”.