'Jackie, this is the song' - 17 replays proved to Andy he had a hit

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Outside of Studio One, Bob Andy first heard I've Got to Go Back Home at Gold Coast, a popular party venue to the east of Kingston. He said it was the era of "hot hops on the beach" and he was there with keyboard player Jackie Mittoo, looking at the faraway screen of Harbour View Drive-in.

"When it played the second time I said 'Jackie, this is the song." They had many opportunities to hear it on the sound system that night. "It played 17 times," Bob Andy said. King Stitt the man at the controls. "On about the fifth play the people literally put hands on each other and marched around. I left there that night thinking there was something about that song."

The sound system play was critical as Bob Andy pointed out that some of his songs, including I've Got to Go Back Home, Desperate Lover and Too Experienced, were not radio hits in the early days. He pointed out that over time, as they became popular, "you hear all kind of fantastic stories".

"One of the first stories that I got was I was stranded in England and the song came out of that," he said.

Undoubtedly, though, I've Got To Go Back Home was a favourite of Jamaicans who went abroad to work, with every intention of returning home one day but found it difficult to amass the funds to fulfil their dream.

"I have met emigrants over the years who have said it was their favourite song while abroad. It used to mash up the various basements," Andy said.

The man, who it is argued is the best songwriter out of Jamaica, has never got tired of singing the song through numerous performances over the 40 years since its release, though he has never considered re-recording it.

"The format that the people have embraced, I would not want to change that for the sake of some current commercialisation," Bob Andy said.