John Holt Covering The Beatles' "I Will"
Plus 27 other reggae covers.
If you want to support Micro-Chop you can follow me on Spotify and subscribe to the newsletter and YouTube channel. You can also contribute to Micro-Chop through Buy Me A Coffee, Cash App, PayPal, and Venmo.
In 1968 The Beatles released The White Album, which included fan favorites like “Blackbird,” “Helter Skelter,” “Julia,” and “I Will.” Eight years later, celebrated reggae artist John Holt recorded an excellent rendition of “I Will” for his album 2000 Volts Of Holt.
Fans of Jay-Z’s The Black Album will likely notice Holt’s cover was repurposed for the Kanye West-produced “Encore.”
There are infinite amazing reggae renditions of songs to dig through and you could easily make a reggae covers playlist or DJ mix with hundreds of songs on it. Reggae covers also frequently become important sample sources for rap and sample-based records. Take Jackie Mittoo’s 1972 cover of Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose’s “Too Late to Turn Back Now.” The crispy drums at the beginning have been flipped and repflipped dozens of times.
A few years back I decided to make a YouTube playlist of some of my favorite reggae covers with 27 total songs. This is by no means a comprehensive list and I’m sure there are omissions here that will be glaring to some readers. But it’s a nice collection of tunes that ranges from famous/well-known to more obscure. There’s also a Spotify version of the playlist that doesn’t have quite as many songs because some aren’t available outside of YouTube, but it’s still pretty comprehensive. Another one of my absolute favorites from my playlist is Jennifer Lara’s remarkable cover of Evelyn "Champagne" King’s “I’m In Love” (with the slightly altered title “I Am In Love”).
I hope the songs included here and the playlist provide you with some nice Sunday listening. Let me know what you think of my selections and what I might have missed.