King Yellow Man “Blueberry Hill”
2021
@LeoOReggio I was commissioned by Kangol in 1987 to produce and direct the video for this song following its instant popularity with Jamaicans. Junior “Becky” Beckford was the Director of Photography on this one, and the locations were Holywell Park located in the Blue Mountains, Skateland, Half Way Tree, and the Mona Chapel at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
Released in 1987, Yellowman’s version topped Jamaican charts for several weeks. The ballad, a big difference from the risque numbers he was known for, remains one of his biggest hits.
Blueberry Hill, Jamaican style, was co-produced by Burtland Dixon for Kangol Records. It was mixed at Tuff Gong Records by a young engineer named Tony Kelly. Blueberry Hill, he recalled in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, was one of his first major projects. “Me do some stuff wid people like Dennis Starr, Black Solidarity, Redman (Hugh James) an’ Fatis (Philip Burrell), but the Yellowman song was jus’ different because it wasn’t a reggae song,” he said.