The Melodians
The Melodians were a Kingston, Jamaica vocal trio — Tony Brevett, Brent Dowe, and Trevor McNaughton — who rose through the ska scene of the early 1960s into one of rocksteady and reggae's defining harmony groups. Their 1970 recording of ‘Rivers of Babylon,’ adapting Psalm 137 into a Rastafari hymn, became an anthem of the movement and, via the soundtrack to The Harder They Come, carried Jamaican music to an international audience years before Boney M.'s cover made it a chart-topping disco hit.
Tony Brevett was the nephew of Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett, and the Melodians came together in the same small Kingston session-musician scene the Skatalites anchored as ska gave way to the slower rocksteady beat in the mid-1960s.
listen forListen for how the driving ska horn-and-rhythm-section sound behind the Skatalites slows into the loping, bass-forward rocksteady pulse the Melodians rode on their early singles.
American vocal groups built around Mayfield's gospel-derived, three-part alternating-lead harmony style were, alongside the Temptations and the Four Tops, a widely cited influence on the rocksteady vocal-trio sound the Melodians worked in.
listen forListen for the smooth, close falsetto harmonies trading the lead line — the same gospel-soul blueprint Mayfield built with the Impressions, translated into a slower, bass-heavy Jamaican groove.