Toppa Top 10: Ten Quintessential British Lovers Rock Tunes

Words by Jesse Serwer, Eddie STATS and Martei Korley

With a documentary about the hidden history of lovers rock coming out this week (in U.K. theaters only, naturally), a primer on this somewhat misunderstood sub-genre seemed in order. At its heart, lovers rock is two things, a distinctly British musical movement which developed and evolved in London’s Caribbean communities in the 1970s, and the “Quiet Storm” to reggae’s R&B, a mellower version of the basic blueprint that developed expressly for intimate occasions, slow dancing or perhaps melancholic daydreaming about that one that got away. While the sound was re-transmitted back to the original source in Jamaica by artists who came to England to record or just fell in love with the sound—Sugar Minott, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and Al Campbell, to name a few—we’ve focused this list on those British artists who most embodied the style.

10. J.C. Lodge, “Someone Loves You Honey”

UK born J.C. Lodge cut her cover of Charley Pride’s country (!) hit “Someone Loves You Honey” at Joe Gibbs, usually a recipe for success. Not so much for Mr. Gibbs though–he had to enter into bankruptcy when he finally acknowledged his outstanding royalty payments to Ms. Lodge for the smash hit, which even went No.1 in the Netherlands. To this day many Caribbean people still associate this song with first loves, garden parties and all the intimate moments in between.

Honorebel Mention: Sandra Cross, “Break Up To Make Up”; Ginger Williams, “Tenderness”, Dennis Brown, “Your Love is a Blessing”; Boris Gardner, “I Wanna Wake Up With You”.

9. Deborahe Glasgow “Give Me That Touch”

Although her life was cut short by cancer at age 28 in 1994, Glasgow had a lengthy singing career which began in her mid teens. This tune was the lead track on her self-titled 1989 album, which although it also contained the dancehall classic “Champion Lover,” (later re-cut by Shabba Ranks as “Mr. Loverman”), is widely considered to be one of lovers rock’s definitive LPs.

8. Black Harmony, “Don’t Let It Go to Your Head”

Black Harmony was a somewhat obscure outfit in their day but someone happened to stumble over their track “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head” and add it to the radio player in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. And we’re glad they did. It makes the list because of the undeniable cool factor which made it relevant all over again.

7. Brown Sugar, “Black Pride”

Caron Wheeler, who would come to world renown more than a decade later as the voice of Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life” and “Keep on Moving,” got her start singing with the lovers rock trio Brown Sugar, in the late ’70s. The group pioneered what was sometimes called “conscious lovers,” bringing social messages to the fore of a genre that had previously offered apolitical escapism for their turbulent times. Another prime example of the group’s style was 1977’s “In Love With a Dreadlocks,” which Brown Sugar vocalist Kofi later re-recorded in 1989 with deejay Macka B.

6. Aswad, “Didn’t Know At the Time”

Aswad went from being a decidedly roots outfit from London’s Ladbroke Grove to making some of the strongest and most complicated lover’s rock arrangements ever attempted. “Didn’t Know At The Time” features some complicated rolling bass lines so original they have never really been attempted in cover versions. The initial release of the track on the New Chapter album was later remixed into a stellar dub on New Chapter of Dub, which surprisingly outsold the original.

5. Maxi Priest, “Strollin On”

Not only is Maxi Priest the best known artist to emerge from the British lovers rock scene, he actually was the first reggae artist to make it to the No. 1 slot on the US Billboard charts, with “Close to You.” “Strollin On,” recorded half a decade earlier, is purebred British lovers at it’s finest. You can hear the mentorship of  Paul “Barry Boom” Robinson and Roger Robin. The video was really really corny but we still have the track in rotation…

4. T.T. Ross, “Last Date”

If “Caught You In a Lie” established the young-girl template of lover’s rock, “Last Date” by T.T. Ross—a white British singer who had previously worked with reggae legend Bunny Lee—established the production team of Eve and Dennis Harris. The husband and wife team later set up their own label in South East London and called it Lover’s Rock, giving the new sound it’s name in the process.

3. Janet Kay, “Silly Games”

The primary audience for Lovers Rock during its heyday was Britain’s Caribbean community, but the best of its tunes graduated to the broader charts and other countries as well. Janet Kay’s “Silly Games” reached No. 2 on the UK pop charts in 1979, the highest position attained by a Black British female artist at the time.

1/2. Louisa Marks, “Caught You In a Lie”/ “Six Street”

If you look up UK Lovers Rock in the dictionary, you’ll find Louisa Mark’s 1975 single “Caught in A Lie” in the definition (not a joke thing—look it up here). Like fellow pioneer Caron Wheeler, Mark was only a girl when she became a sensation, recording “Caught You in A Lie”–generally regarded as the very first lover’s rock tune—when she was only 14. Driven by a modulating synth-line fully worthy of a prog-rock opus, the Safari 7” also exemplifies the genre’s departure from the Jamaican blueprint, borrowing arrangements and ideas from Motown and Philly soul for new melodic possibilities. Her other signature tune “Six Sixth Street”–this time with a sublime flute playing off the Ernest Ranglin-esque guitar line—is pure tough love as well.