Various Artists - Treasure Isle Presents: Rock Steady: 40 Ground-Breaking Hits

This is a candid collection of some of the minor artists from the rocksteady era. The main highlights would be the Alton Ellis stuff and also the John Holt and The Paragons tracks. John Holt made history by being the first reggae artist to include strings in his music. His style was very laid back with beautiful string sections and blazoned with horns. It was a very romantic and dreamlike approach to the genre and if I personally had to recommend any reggae to someone who had not heard a lot, I would recommend John Holt's album 1000 Volts Of Holt. It is basically a reggae album covering old 70s and 60s tracks, in the reggae style of course with luscious horn and string sections; it really is like nothing else.

Various Artists - Trojan Presents: Rock Steady: 40 Ground-Breaking Hits

This includes many songs I am aware and know of so personally it did not take a long time to appreciate this compilation of Trojan hits from a massively productive era which was the rocksteady era in Jamaica between 1966 and 1968. The compilation really picks up pace later on with the tracks by The Gaylettes with ''Silent River (Runs Deep)'' and the cracker ''Don't Look Back'' by Keith & Tex, which itself was covered by Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger later on, but the original is phenomenal. I also like the closer ''Bim Today (Bam Tomorrow)'' which is graced with the most impressive vocal performances from Toots & The Maytals. All in all this compilation has successful captured a pivotal era where there was no nonsense just the music, and they were really churning out hits at a furious pace.