Ray Martell - She Caught The train / Cora - HSRSS-0025

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 First reissue of this super rare early Reggae classic!

“SHE CAUGHT THE TRAIN” /

“CORA”

By Ray Martell

7" VINYL 45 RPM - LIMITED EDITION

OFFICIAL RELEASE: March 22, 2024

ABOUT THIS RELEASE:

This is the first re-release on 7inch vinyl single of the early Reggae classic “She Caught The Train” by Ray Martell released in 1970 on the Trojan sublabel Joe in the U.K. and later covered by UB 40 in 1983. The song, a huge hit, has featured on many compilations but has never been repressed as a single, until now…

It was initially released with the track “Tea House From Emperor Roscoe” by Dice The boss on the B side. On this release, we chose to showcase a super rare Ray Martell song, the gorgeous “Cora” initially released on Attack (another Trojan sublabel) in 1970.

About Joe Mansano:

“She Caught The Train” was credited to Joe Mansano, real name Joel Mansano who also produced the song. Joel was a Trinidadian who moved to London in 1963. He was a record shop seller, song writer and producer and became heavily involved in the early reggae era producing and writing tracks for several Jamaican artists, enough for Trojan to dedicate a label to him: the “Joe” label aimed at the emerging Skinheads market. He also owned a shop the Joe's Record Centre in Brixton and recorded two handfuls of singles under the name Joe The boss…

About Ray Martell:

“Cora” is credited to Ray Martell himself and was produced by Philligree, an alias for Graham Goodall and Phil Chen. The Philligree duo produced about 20 very interesting singles on a variety of labels with artist such as Desmond Dekker, Millie, Pat Sandy and Ray Martell among others between 1969 and 1970.   Although “She Caught The Train” is indeed a famous track, little is known about Ray Martell aka Martel Robinson. Ray was born in St Catherine parish in Jamaica in September 1943. He started to sing at school and church and later on moved to U.K. where he kept on singing in clubs in Coventry and Birmingham … He eventually moved to London where he recorded 4 great tracks in 1970 “She Caught The Train” on Joe, “Cora” and “Loving Lover” on Attack, and “Lover” on Trojan, the last three being written by himself.  In 1973 he started his own label “Ray” featuring his own productions but these were unfortunately not as interesting as his previous releases…