MARVELS, THE - FEEL FREE

The Marvels were a UK-based ska, rocksteady and reggae group active between 1962 and 1982. Originally from Jamaica, Alex "Dimples" Hinds, Cornell "Nell" Hinds and Eddie Smith formed their group in the UK. Jackie Edwards and Hazel McCauley joined them. By the early 70s the group released a cover of Aretha Franklin’s, ‘Rock Steady’ on the Pama Records Supreme label and enjoyed their biggest hit. The success of the single led to work with Dandy Livingstone who enrolled their services on his own recordings and produced a number of releases through his Shady Tree productions. The group provided backing vocals for Dandy when he performed, ‘Suzanne Beware Of The Devil’ on UK’s music programme Top Of The Pops. The Pama compilation This Is Reggae Volume Three featured a photograph of their appearance on the cover. Continuing with cover versions they scored hits in 1972 with ‘Then He Kissed Me’ and in 1973 the gospel-flavoured ‘He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands’. By 1974 the disco-inspired ‘Get On Your Feet’ flopped and in 1975 Dimples Hinds recorded as a soloist enjoying a club hit with his version of ‘Why Don’t You Do Right’. As a trio they were unable to emulate the success of ‘Rock Steady’ but this did not deter the Decca Records’ subsidiary Gull when they attempted to revive their career in 1976 with, ‘Lovers Concerto’ a moderate hit. The group featured on a showcase of sentimental reggae in the late 70s touring Europe alongside carnival king, Roy Alton, Tim Chandell, Dandy Livingstone and the Immigrants. Dimples went on to enjoy a successful solo career performing sentimental reggae hits. In 1983 the trio returned to the re-activated Pama label where they enjoyed reggae hit with ‘Heaven Must Have Sent You’. Dimples Hinds has continued to pursue his solo career enjoying a number of hits in the sentimental reggae genre widely referred to as big peoples music. Alex "Dimples" Hinds died in March 2018. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.