FOLLOW THAT RIDDIM: FROM STRANGER COLE TO U-ROY

Stranger Cole: Crying Every NIght
From 7″ (Treasure Isle, 1969/1970). Also on Bangarang.

U-Roy and Hopeton Lewis: Tom Drunk
From 7″ (Trojan, 1970). Also on Your Ace From Space.

The thing I love about being totally underinformed when it comes to riddims is discovering both re-uses of certain riddims, or in this case, the originating riddim. I got turned onto “Tom Drunk” because of Reflection Eternal and certainly, if there’s any song that’s associated with this riddim, it’s the U-Roy single. Huge hit, big deal for him at that point in his career.

But it wasn’t until years later (10+!) that I realized, “oh, that was someone else’s riddim?” And as it turns out, it seems to have originated first with Stranger Cole and his cover of “These Eyes (aka Crying Every Night)”. Awesome OG, love the use of female back-up singers, and, of course, the production is incredible (Duke Reid I presume?)

There’s a few other tunes with the same riddim, including instrumental versions by Herman Marquis and Tommy McCook.