Studio One first released Bob Marley’s “Simmer Down” single in 1964.
The recording was made during Marley’s earliest career with the Wailing Wailers. Clement “Coxsone” Dodd produced the session at Studio One, one of Jamaica’s most influential recording studios and record labels. The song used a ska rhythm and urged Kingston’s rude boys to calm down.
“Simmer Down” became a major Jamaican hit and helped establish the Wailing Wailers as a leading young group. It is an important early example of Marley’s songwriting and of the transition from local Jamaican success toward the international reggae career that followed.
Studio One is sometimes confused with Island Records, which later distributed and promoted Marley’s internationally successful albums. Tuff Gong was Marley’s own Jamaican label, founded later. Beverley’s Records was another Jamaican label, but it was not the first studio to release “Simmer Down.”