Island rhythms appropriately permeate the strains of Charley Pride’s “You’re My Jamaica,” which also holds the distinction as the first number one country hit recorded in England.
Songwriter Kent Robbins was a big island buff. He had spent time in the Bahamas, Hawaii, Bermuda – many of the famous ones. One day, in the dead of winter, Robbins had a little rhythm pattern going in his head and was trying to develop some “summertime” lyrics to fit it. He was sifting through his notebook of song ideas and came up with a good storyline. With summertime on his mind, Kent started thinking about Jamaica for some reason and the word seemed to blend well with his newly-written lyrics and the melody. So he worked it in.
Robbins called his new tune “You’re My Jamaica.” He described it as “a nice, sort of reggae-feeling ‘summery’ tune in the middle of winter.” The songwriter wanted to make sure to depict the island correctly in the piece and include the proper images. So he went down to his local travel agency and got some folders about Jamaica. After studying those, he received the information he needed.
