Ska singer Patsy Todd, ‘the one who walked away’, turns 80

During the era of ska music, Jamaica was blessed with a pioneering singer named Millicent ‘Patsy’ Todd, aka Pata-Pata Patsy, who was known for her great voice as well as her trendsetting style and fashion. “Diana Ross had nothing on this poor Western Kingston girl in the 1960s. The fact is ... she was Jamaica’s Diana Ross. She is the one who walked away from music, but she paved the way for many female singers,” her ‘son’ Kareem Ali, the son of Prince Buster, said proudly.

On Monday, Patsy Todd will turn 80. However, there is more than a tinge of poignancy about this milestone. The celebration for the woman who “always keep up her birthday … and loved big things ... big, elaborate furniture, big houses ... even big pots” will be muted, owing to her dementia. Ali, who is overseeing the well-being of the woman he calls his mother, and her friends Derrick Morgan and Stranger Cole, remembers the singer on the eve of her birthday.

Patsy’s career had an inauspicious start. Her mother saw Derrick Morgan on the road and told him that her daughter could sing.

“Patsy and her mother were living on Drummond Street,” veteran ska and rocksteady singer Derrick Morgan told The Sunday Gleaner. “I went to the house and saw Patsy washing her clothes in a pan. I asked her if she could sing and she said ‘Yeah’. I told her to sing me something. She pitch a nice gospel song to me … . I don’t remember the name of it now, but she sound good.”

That was essentially Patsy’s audition, which she passed with flying colours. Morgan wasted no time in giving her a song he had written titled Love Not to Brag.

“I give Patsy her part and, believe you me, in no time, she know it like nutten! She know when to come in and when to go out. Patsy is a natural talent … easy to work with and such a very nice person. We met up again after a long, long time and she used to visit me in Florida ... then she buy a big house and move down because she liked the state,” Morgan recalled.

Morgan took Patsy to producer Duke Reid and he recalled Reid’s jubilant words when he heard her sing: “Ah goin’ kill dem now!”

“Duke used to play ‘gainst Coxsone and Edwards [sound system pioneers] and, when him play the song, it mash up di place. Me and Patsy did some good tunes together, but our biggest hit for Coxsone was Feel so Fine,” Morgan said, and recalled how they were promised a lawsuit for that song.

American duo Shirley & Lee, who were active during the 1950s and 1960s, had popularised the track. Using the melody, Morgan wrote his own words and changed the title. Shirley & Lee came to Jamaica to perform and Derrick & Patsy, by now a solid duo, were on the bill and they performed their version of the song, to a bigger audience response.

“But they couldn’t sue, because it wasn’t their song … so nothing came of it,” Morgan said with a chuckle.

From Duke Reid, Morgan moved on to Beverley’s, and it was there he and Patsy recorded for producer Leslie Kong.

“The most popular song was Housewives Choice … [Radio Host] Marie Garth give it that name because every day the housewives used to call in and request it. So we changed the name and released it as Housewives Choice,” Morgan shared.

In the year 1963, Morgan left for England for six months with Prince Buster, who was Patsy’s neighbour. When he returned to Jamaica, Patsy was singing with Stranger Cole.

“Stranger had a song called Who Are You That I Should be Mindful of? And him and Patsy had a big tune called When I Call Your Name. They were singing for Duke Reid. I was mad about it and I found a girl named Yvonne Adams … at that time, I didn’t even know that she was my cousin,” Morgan said. “We put out a song called Meekly Wait and Murmur Not.”

But, singing with Yvonne wasn’t the same for Morgan and their partnership didn’t last long. “At that time, the two big female singers were Hortense Ellis and Patsy,” Morgan said, sounding sad as he shared that he was in regular contact with Patsy up until the dementia set in fully. “Dane [Ali] took Patsy to one of my shows for her to sing with me ... but she couldn’t remember the words of the songs.”

ERA OF STRANGER AND PATSY

Patsy and Stranger went from strength to strength, until she shockingly quit the business in the mid-’60s and migrated to the United States with her family. “She had songs by herself ... she went on tour overseas with Byron Lee ... but Patsy said that everybody around her was making money but she wasn’t,” Ali shared.

Stranger Cole has very fond memories of Patsy.

“This house that I live in now, I bought it out of a song called Hey Hey Baby that me and Patsy do together,” Stranger Cole told The Sunday Gleaner.

“Patsy is a beautiful girl. She’s my friend and everything that a lady should be. Patsy is one of Jamaica’s first and greatest lady singers ... like Hortense Ellis. Patsy was singing from she was about 14,” he added.

It was Duke Reid who introduced Stranger and Patsy – who was the more popular act – and their journey saw them releasing songs such as When I Call Your Name, Give Me the Rights, Down by the Trainline, Artibella, Uno Dos Tres, and several others.

After Patsy migrated to America, she settled down working at a hospital, reuniting with Derrick Morgan and Stranger Cole in later years for live performances.

“Patsy even did tours with Stranger, but then the dementia popped up and she had to stop,” explained Ali.

In 2011, Patsy was awarded for her contribution to Jamaica’s popular music by the organisers of Tribute To The Greats.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com