Pat Kelly - Sunshine - Duke Reid

You might think that a reggae version of a John Denver song was pretty much the last thing the world of music would need. 

In fact, this solo recording by Pat Kelly of The Techniques is a very fine thing indeed.

Naturally it has been re-issued repeatedly. 

Here are a couple of unusual and interesting issues. 

Pat Kelly`s version of Sunshine was produced by Duke Reid and this Jamaican issue (above) is possibly the original. Of the various labels run by Reid, Treasure Isle and Dutchess (sic) are probably the best-known. However, there were others,  including  Sure Shot, as in this case. 

 I would think the name of the label refers to Duke`s past career as a Jamaican Police Officer, in which capacity he won at least one award for marksmanship. 

I have also seen pictures of other Reid issues with the same label design but with the company name given as Sure Soul. 

This `70s re-issue is from the UK.  Black Wax was both a record label and a record shop, both based in Birmingham and both run by a man named Keith Thornton. As you can hopefully see, the label design is very `70s. 

I`m by no means an expert on the Black Wax story, but my understanding is that the label was set up to provide UK re-issues of work licensed from a number of different Jamaican producers, it did not specialise in the works of Duke Reid in the way some others did. 

It remains for me to point out that Pat Kelly is still around and I believe is still recording and performing. 

I myself have only recently come to fully appreciate his work but  feel sure his work is destined to give me many happy hours of listening in the future.