Clancy Eccles
b. c.1940, Jamaica. One of the most loved and respected personalities in the history of Jamaican music, Clancy Eccles started making records for Clement Coxsone Dodd in 1959, recording Freedom, initially as an acetate which was featured on Dodd's sound system for nearly two years before its official release in 1961. For the same producer he also recorded local hits River Jordan and Glory Hallelujah. He then provided Judgement for Leslie Kong's business mentor Charlie Moo in late 1962. By the mid-60s he had completed three other records, Miss Ida and Roam Jerusalem/’Sammy No Dead’ for Sonia Pottinger and I'm The Greatest for Mike Shadeen. By 1967 he had started his own label, his first release being Eric Monty Morris’ local hit, Say What You're Saying. During the next few years Eccles was one of reggae's leading producers. He was instrumental in helping Lee Perry set up his own operation when that producer left Coxsone, arranging Perry's huge local hit, People Funny Boy in 1968. 
From 1969 Trojan Records released Eccles's productions on UK Clandisc. Records like Fire Corner by DJ King Stitt and the bawdy Fatty Fatty by Eccles were very popular, not only with audiences in Jamaica and the Afro-Caribbean communities in North America and the UK, but also appealing to the British skinheads who followed Jamaican music at that time. In this period, utilizing his studio band the Dynamites, Eccles produced records by such artists as Alton Ellis, Lord Creator, the Fabulous Flames, Lee Perry Larry Marshall, Joe Higgs, the Beltones, Busty Brown, Carl Dawkins and Cynthia Richards. He issued many records featuring his own vocals, singing either heart-felt love songs or stinging social comment. A lifelong socialist, Eccles has continued to record material on this theme right up to 1985, when he issued Mash Up We Country, a song that takes its place alongside such classics as the pro-PNP (People's National Party) anthem Rod Of Correction (1972) and Generation Belly (1976). Eccles was also an adviser to Michael Manley's PNP Government from 1972 on matters relating to the music business. He continues to release compilations of oldies, as well as the occasional new production. Eccles is the quintessential Jamaican producer, particularly in the attention he pays to his craft and his proximity to his audience's tastes.