Reggae Originals

[richardjohn]

At work today somebody was playing a collection of old reggae originals, and it struck me how many of these tracks had been covered by Boney M over the years. Firstly I heard a tune that sounded suspiciously like 'Baby Do You Wanna Bump'. It turned out to be a track called 'Al Capone' . Im sure you probably already knew that but I didnt. How did Farian get away with it? The tune is identical. Did the original writer get a credit?
Other tracks on this collection included 'Rivers Of Babylon' , 'Train to Skaville' and 'OO7' which was covered by Liz Mitchell.

[jdbaptist]

From my understanding it was George Reyam (Hans Jörg Mayer) who found non-copyright music for Farian to rework for BM songs. ' Al Capone ' is originally by Prince Buster (old ska record). In 1978 (three years after Farian's reworking) the UK band 'The Specials' did exactly the same thing with their single 'Gangsters' (remember the chant line " don't call me scar face ! " ) - now ! My history replay for today X