Dobby Dobson

Highland Ralph Dobson OD (5 July 1942 – 21 July 2020) was a Jamaican reggae singer and record producer, nicknamed "The Loving Pauper" after one of his best known songs.

Biography

Dobson began singing while a student at Central Branch School in Kingston and at Kingston College, where he sang in the chapel choir, and successfully took part in Vere Johns Opportunity Hour talent contest as a member of The Twilights. While at Kingston College he wrote the doo-wop song "Cry a Little Cry" as a tribute to his biology teacher. He recruited a group of schoolmates from the Delta stream at the college to back him on a recording of the song, under the name the Dobby Dobson and the Deltas; The group included Howard Barrett (who later formed The Paragons). Released by Lyndon and Sonia Pottinger's Tip-Top label in 1959, it topped the RJR charts that year.

Leaving school in 1959, Dobson went on record with Charles Josephs as part of the duo Chuck and Dobby, before becoming a solo artist in the early 1960s, again recording for Pottinger. He later moved on to work with both Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid, recording as a member of both The Virtues and The Sheiks, and recorded "Loving Pauper" with Reid...

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