Legendary Jamaican Singer Stranger Cole insisted He Recorded The First Reggae Song.
Vintage Jamaican singer Stranger Cole insisted that his 1968 iconic number one hit song,’ Muma No Want Bangarang,’ on which he collaborated with late Skatalites legend Lester Sterling, was the first Reggae song ever to be recorded, and not Nanny Goat by Studio One’s Larry Marshall.
In an interview at Reggae Jam 2023, Cole said the following:
“Bangarang is known to be the first Reggae music (rhythm), and I sang the first reggae song on the music. A lot of people have it the wrong way, you know. Music, Reggae is not a word, nor Rocksteady…,” Stranger Cole said
Stranger Cole, Legendary Jamaican singer
“It is the music that changes that… So when you sing and the music changes (rhythm), it’s different from a man telling you, ‘Oh, I sing the first reggae music.’ No. I sing on the first reggae music (rhythm), yeah,” he explained.
Stranger Cole
For example, the late Toots Hibbert of the Maytals gets credited as the first to mention Reggae in a song (Do the Reggay in 1968).
However, when the Reggae Interviewer pointed out that Toots Hibbert was among the artists to whom the first Reggae song was attributed, Cole said it was not the usage of the word “Reggae” which made the song Reggae– he made it clear that it is the beat that counts.
“It’s not about you singing the first reggae song. It’s about the first reggae riddim,” he explained.
Stranger Cole
In 1968, Sterling composed the beat for Muma No Want Bangarang, a song written by Stranger Cole, an adaptation of Kenny Graham and his Afrocubists’ 1950s hit Bongo Chant.
So, if Stranger Cole memory is not warped, It is not crazy to assume, the birth of Reggae was influenced by Afrobeats.
