Angel of the Morning is one of those great songs that that is so great it’s been been covered countless times by countless artists, and they all sound pretty good. For me though, the best of the best is the 1968 version by Joya Landis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HPG0vnILg

Landis was an American, but she recorded the track for Treasure Isle records, the Rocksteady/Reggae label run by Duke Reid in Jamaica. Ms. Landis’s version rides the fence between both genres, but to me it leans further into the Rocksteady category. It has everything that makes the genre great – the grooving guitar riff, the swagger, the tempo, the horns, the back-up singers, and of course her beautiful vocal track, which sounds relaxed and powerful all at once.

Along with Ska and Reggae, Rocksteady  became huge in the UK in the 60’s, and helped spawn one of the many cultural revolutions that went on over there during those years, becoming the essential soundtrack to Mod culture. This was facilitated largely by the great Trojan Records label, who signed licensing deals with many small labels in the late 60’s and brought this music over to the UK. These days, there are more Trojan compilation albums than you can shake a stick at, but the shocker is that they’re all great, despite some inevitable overlapping of tracks here and there. You can find the Joya Landis version on iTunes, but I recommend the Trojan Original Compilation, available here through Amazon. Whether you’re new to Rocksteady or have loved it for years, that compilation is one of the best.

U.K. Mods in the 60’s…

Bonus video-

While the Joya Landis track will always be my number one favourite version of this song, the Lilian Saint-Pierre French cover from 1969 is a very close second. Check it out…