Desmond Dekker Tribute Feat' The Original Aces, AJ Franklin (Chosen Few) Lascell James, Calvin Salmon + Festus Coxsone & Mr Scorcher. Singer and songwriter Desmond Dekker was born Desmond Adolphus Dacres on July 16, 1941, in the St. Andrew suburb of Kingston, Jamaica. Following his mother's death, Dekker moved around the country before finally settling in Kingston, where he worked in a welding shop alongside Bob Marley. He began displaying his singing talents while at work, and Marley encouraged him to pursue a musical career, particularly in the ska, reggae and rocksteady genres. In 1968, Desmond Dekker & The Aces won the Jamaican Song Festival. The next year, he released the song "Israelites," which topped the UK Singles Chart and made it into the US Billboard Hot 100's Top Ten. The song sold more than a million copies worldwide. By the end of the 1960s, Desmond Dekker & The Aces had won the Golden Trophy award, presented annually to Jamaica's top singer, five times. His song "007 (Shanty Town)" made it onto the soundtrack of the 1972 Jamaica reggae film The Harder They Come, and the Beatles' Paul McCartney slipped Dekker's first name into the song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."? Dekker died of a heart attack on May 25, 2006, at his home in Surrey, England,
