Mark My Words Riddim – Various Labels

Mark My Words Riddim comes from a run of productions tied to Witty, Coxsone Dodd, Bunny Lee, Sonia Pottinger, Alberto Blackwood, and Ian McLean, stretching back to 1968 and moving across labels like Supreme, Third World, High Note, and Slam. The rhythm is best known here through Marcia Griffiths’ original Mark My Words, with later cuts from Hortense Ellis and Dillinger, The Revolutionaries, Al Campbell, Bounty Killer and Delicate, Captain Barkey, George Nooks, and Paul Elliott. It has that rare kind of old-school foundation that kept getting rebuilt across decades, from Marcia’s late-60s vocal to the late-70s dub version Mark Dis Yah Dub and the late-90s dancehall reworks. Marcia Griffiths’ cut is the anchor, and the later versions show how deeply this Studio One-era style stayed in rotation.