Spearheaded by one of the most iconic singles of all time, Desmond Dekker’s The Israelites album is twenty six faultless minutes of supreme good vibes.

From the very depths of mid-winter, our first Sunday Classic for 2025 just had to be something with a little bit of energy to it and we had been meaning to write about Desmond Adolphus Dacres for quite a while now. As the album approaches its 55th anniversary, if this set of swooning ska stunners doesn't lift the spirits, we might well be doomed.

Originally released in 1969 on Pyramid Records - a subsidiary of Graeme Goodall’s Doctor Bird Records - The Israelites followed hot on the heels of Dekker’s international smash hit of the same name that had been steadily growing since release in the October of 1968. It would go on to become the first reggae number one in the UK (also hitting number one in the Netherlands, West Germany and its native Jamaica) and among the first to reach the US top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart too.

“It all happened so quickly. I didn't write that song sitting around a piano or playing a guitar. I was walking in the park, eating corn. I heard a couple arguing about money. She was saying she needed money and he was saying the work he was doing was not giving him enough. I relate to those things and began to sing a little song - “You get up in the morning and you slaving for bread.” By the time I got home it was complete. And it was so funny, that song never got out of my mind. It stayed fresh in my head. The following day I got my little tape and I just sang that song and that's how it all started.”

The self-crowned King of Ska had already received some notoriety off the back of his 1967 rocksteady single “(007) Shanty Town”, but the global success of The Israelites (originally titled “Poor Me Israelites”) was unprecedented. But, that's not to suggest that the album is all about its opening and titular track, or to diminish the musicality of his band, The Aces. Dekker’s sublime vocal holds the higher register, and the harmonies from Barry Howard and Winston Samuels are just wonderful and incredibly dynamic, whether wrapping around Dekker’s lead lines or filling the stereo with deep and rich tones. The opening harmonies on ‘It Mek’ really stay with you. There are some sweet moments of slower introspection, but so much of the album has an irrepressible bounce to it, with snap to the guitars and some cavernous reverb to the drums.

The cover features Desmond Dekker locking eyes, smoking a cigarette and wearing a mustard waistcoat (with matching cufflinks); he is cool and he knows it. The Israelites is an album of spiritual uplift, ten tracks of inextinguishable optimism and good vibration.

The Israelites was licensed around the world in an array of slightly different designs across its many imprints, but almost unbelievably, the album was unavailable since its original release until Trojan produced a faithful reproduction in 2016. Remastered from the best available analogue source and really sounding fantastic.