Riffiter on King Sparrow's Calypso Carnival

Twelve songs from 1959, and some of the titles read like a newspaper index: "Russian Satellite" and "Mad Bomber" sit next to love songs for Teresa, Stella and Dorothy. That mix is the whole point of Sparrow. Three years after his first crown with "Jean and Dinah", he already treated calypso as a place for the week's news as much as for the dance floor. This is the young singer before the Madison Square Garden bills and the long run of titles, already working with the idea he kept for the next 70 years. Start here, then go to "Model Nation" and the political songs of the 1960s and 70s.