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The three brothers Folkes, Michael, John and Eric together with Count Ossie and his drummers, Owen Gray (piano) and extra vocalist Skitter went to Prince Buster’s studio and recorded a classic of Jamaican music. To be labelled a one-hit-wonder is generally something of an insult, but to be a one-record-wonder is an accolade. The Jamaican artists who have made one perfect recording and then vanished, leaving a reputation forever untarnished by later lapses, could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Folkes Brothers are among that number: in 1961 or early 1962 they recorded ‘Oh Carolina’, a unique and perfect single, and never appeared again. The record has Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers thundering out complex African cross-rhythms, Gray’s contrastingly American-styled on piano, and the Brothers, with a soulful lead singer Skitter and two lighter-voiced male accompanists, delivering the song. In 1993 an updated version of ‘Oh Carolina’ reached number 1 in the UK charts for ragga singer Shaggy.

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