Recording

Ring the Alarm
Tenor Saw

Independently chosen for2 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.

Released

1985

Label

Techniques

On

Dancehall and The Eighties

Updated

2026-08-29

1. 03

   Ranked No. 3 in Dancehall

   The Stalag riddim's definitive vocal, cut by a nineteen-year-old who was dead within three years. Urgency is easy to fake and impossible to manufacture, and this is the real thing.

2. ·

   Picked by The Eighties

   Winston Riley's own Kingston label, a rhythm reused for the next thirty years, and no multinational anywhere near it. Jamaica had been running the model this whole list describes since long before the decade started.