(2020) Delano Stewart - Stay a Little Bit Longer [Deluxe Edition]


Review:
First things first: the smiling woman on the cover of Delano Stewart’s Stay a Little Bit Longer, is not the artist but rather a model. Winston Delano Stewart is the male singer of ’60s rocksteady group The Gaylads, formed in Kingston, Jamaica when Stewart and his singing partner Harris “B.B.” Seaton decided to expand their sound. In 1968, Stewart struck out on his own and embarked on a successful solo career. 1970’s Stay a Little Bit Longer, his debut solo platter, has been reissued by Doctor Bird as a deluxe 2-CD edition with 60 tracks (13 new to CD), greatly expanding the original 12-song LP. Stay a Little Bit Longer resulted from Stewart’s short but creatively fertile affiliation with Sonia Pottinger, a pioneering female producer and impresario. Having dipped her toes into the music business when her husband Lindon opened a studio in 1961 (the first in Jamaica to be owned by a black person), she stayed in the business after she and Lindon separated.  She opened a record store in addition to multiple labels including High Note, to which Delano was signed.  The Trojan release of a Stay a Little Bit Longer collected twelve High Note singles of Delano’s – all original songs save a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home).”  The release of the LP promised to make Stewart a major name in Jamaica, but he soon left the country to start anew in America.  Sadly, only a few more singles materialized on small labels throughout the 1970s as he pursued careers outside of music. The first disc of this expanded reissue adds four bonus tracks from Delano Stewart including three alternate versions and one originally-unissued outtake.  It then presents Dr. No Go, a previously unreleased compendium from 1970 of Sonia Pottinger’s productions for Trojan Records featuring Delroy Wilson, The Conquerors, The Hippy Boys, and others.  The second disc boasts another 30 tracks from Pottinger’s discography, first released in 1969-1970 on the High Note and Gayfeet labels. While Delano Stewart is the headlining artist of this CD – and it collects the entirety of his solo ska and rocksteady recordings – it’s more of a primer for Pottinger, who retired from music in 1985 and received an Order of Distinction (OD) from the Jamaican government in 2004 for her contributions to the country’s culture.





Tracklist:
CD 1
Delano Stewart, Stay a Little Bit Longer
01.Stay a Little Longer
02.Dance with Me
03.Hallelujah
04.That’s Life
05.Don’t Believe Him
06.Wherever I Lay My Hat
07.Got to Come Back
08.Rocking Sensation
09.Let’s Have Some Fun
10.Tell Me Baby
11.Give Me a Chance
12.Wish It Could Last
13.Stay a Little Longer (Inst.)
14.Win Your Love (Outtake)
15.Don't Believe Him (Inst.)
16.Got to Come Back (Strings Mix)

Dr. No Go (unreleased 1970 Trojan compilation)
17.The Hippy Boys - Doctor No Go
18.Delroy Wilson - Your Number One
19.The Conquerors - National Dish
20.The Victors - Reggae Buddy
21.Naomi - You're Not My Kind
22.The Emotions - Rum Bay
23.Junior Soul - Jennifer
24.The Federals - Wailing Festival
25.The Emotions - You Can't Stop Me
26.Delroy Wilson - I've Tried My Best
27.Roland Alphonso - Sticker
28.Marcia Griffiths - Toil Part Two
29.Marcia Griffiths - Toil Part One
30.Bim & Bam - Fatty

CD 2: Reggae Pressure (productions by Sonia Pottinger)
01.The Conquerors - Mr D.J.
02.The Victors - Easy Squeeze
03.Delroy Wilson - Good to Me
04.The Hippy Boys - Chicken Licken
05.The Emotions - The Storm
06.Junior Soul - Slipping
07.The Soul Twins - Cherrie
08.The Gaytones - Cherrie Part II
09.The Ethiopians - Praise Far I
10.The Conquerors - I've Got the Power
11.The Melodians - Love Is a Doggone Good Thing
12.Nora Dean - Must Get a Man
13.The Crashers - Musical Fight
14.Delroy Wilson - What Do You Want with Me
15.The Beltones - Broken Heart
16.Naomi - Natural Woman
17.The Melodians - (You Rule) Your Destiny
18.Winston Wright - Reggae Pressure
19.The First Generation - Give Him Up
20.Charlie Ace - Creation Version
21.Busty Brown - Man Short (Ten to One)
22.The Melodians - Lock Love Away
23.Winston Wright - Soul Pressure
24.Dave Barker - She Want It
25.Nora Dean - The Valet
26.Teddy & the Conquerors - Home Bound
27.Roland Alphonso - Lover Boy
28.The Melodians - No Nola
29.The First Generation - When
30.Bim & Bam - Landlord


Media Report:
Genre: reggae
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits