Israelites (song)

"Israelites" is a song which was written by Desmond Dekker and Leslie Kong for Desmond Dekker & The Aces. The song likens the plight of the poor working man to that of the ancient Hebrew slaves -- "the Israelites."

It was one of the first international hits by a Jamaican artist. In 1969 it reached the Top Ten in the United States, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and hit number one in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Jamaica, South Africa, Canada, Sweden and West Germany. The British success came almost two years after Dekker first made his mark with the rude boy song, "007".

While Dekker's strong Jamaican accent made his lyrics largely unintelligible to audiences outside of the island, it made little difference to the success of his discs. "Israelites" brought a Jamaican beat to the British pop fans for the first time since Millie's number two hit "My Boy Lollipop". But 1969 was the right time for reggae to make a breakthrough in the United Kingdom. The Beatles, as always the trendsetters back then, had recorded their own reggae-influenced song, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (in which the lyric's mention of "Desmond" refers to Dekker), which the pop group Marmalade subsequently took to number one.