Toppa Top 10: Ten Reggae Make-Up Songs

Words by Jesse Serwer and Sherman Escoffery

Earlier today, we brought you a Toppa Top 10 with some of our favorite reggae/dancehall tunes about breaking up. Well now that you’ve got all those tears out of your system, here’s part two of our “break up to make up” Valentine’s Day special. A little bit of a different route this time, though, as we spotlight some forgotten and overlooked tunes about rekindling old love, along with a few indisputable classics about the matter.

Singing Melody, “Want You Back”

This overproduced cover song that could not hide the passion with which Singing Melody approached it; as if he wrote it himself from the heart. (However, Warner Music Group can hide it from being heard, as our attempts to embed the song on our site have been blocked. Check out a dubplate version above, and buy it here).

Louisa Mark and Kevin Henly, “Reunited”

Sure, it’s a little saccharine in that way only ’70s pop songs can be, but the Carpenters’ original “Reunited” is the ultimate make-up song. Well, British singer Louisa Mark included a U.K. Lovers Rock version of it (with male duet partner Kevin Henly) on her debut album Breakout, and the dub-influenced, Lovers Rock mixing adds some depth that the original pop production couldn’t.

Tiger feat. Anthony Malvo, “Come Back To Me”

After a stalled career and a drug-induced downward spiral, Tiger came roaring back to No. 1 with this alleged real life plea to his then ex-girlfriend, who had left because of his drug abuse.

Aswad, “Old Fire Stick”

“Old fire stick fi easy to catch” is an old Jamaican saying, referencing the ease with which old loves can be rekindled. This Aswad tune illustrates said phenomenon, as Brinsley Forde sings of his receptiveness to a long-lost gyal (“She calls me saying long time no see dere/Says she was looking through a photo album, came across a picture of me”) who looks him up out of the blue

Buju Banton and Wayne Wonder, “Reunion” (a.k.a. “Good Enough”)

Wayne Wonder’s been around the world, dated many girls. But right now, he’s feeling deja vu—and so is Buju, too.

Johnny Osbourne and the Sensations, “Come Back Darling”

The title track of Johnny Osbourne’s freshman album, this has become one of his most enduring hits, and was eventually covered by UB40, giving them another top 10 hit in the UK. Ironically, it was Johnny who was migrating to Canada when he recorded this song, much to the disappointment of his then girlfriend.

Beres Hammond, “Come Back Home”

Beres Hammond is pretty much make-up music personified—this song alone has probably saved a couple hundred Jamaican marriages. Unfortunately, embeds of this tune are blocked. Check a clip of Beres performing it above, or check it here.

Foxy Brown, “Sorry”

The outcome of this one is a bit ambiguous, but the sentiment in this Tracy Chapman-tune-turned-slow-dance-favorite surely resonates with anyone attempting to make amends after messing up at love.

Beres Hammond, “Falling In Love All Over Again” 

Beres is at his most Marvin-like, vocally, on this tune, about rediscovering the charms of that chick you took for granted. (In this case, after your best friend gets seconds). Of course, this song is just as well known in another version, “Who Say,” one of several classic combination tunes Beres recorded with Buju Banton in the early ’90s.

Gregory Isaacs, “Can I Change My Mind”

In what is arguably the ultimate breakup-and-then-makeup song, that old rolling stone Gregory Isaacs begs to be let back into his lover’s life, after realizing how much he took her for granted.