The Uniques’ “Watch This Sound” is based on a mishearing (either by accident or on purpose) of a Stephen Stills song recorded by Stills’ group Buffalo Springfield called “For What It’s Worth.” Stills had written the song after observing a heated encounter between kids and police outside Pandora’s Box, a teen rock club on L.A.’s famed Sunset Strip, in 1966. The club, one of the few in the area that opened its doors to kids under the age of 18, was slated to be torn down for a road- widening project, and when the LAPD instituted a tight 10 p.m. curfew for minors, an impromptu protest outside Pandora’s Box began, leading to the confrontation that Stills details in his song. “For What It’s Worth” became the debut single for Buffalo Springfield, hitting the charts in 1967. Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, the second incarnation of the Uniques (the first version of the vocal trio had included Slim Smith, Roy Shirley and Franklyn White) with Slim Smith, Jimmy Riley and Lloyd Charmers was just taking shape, and they eventually came up with an arrangement of the Stills tune, hearing the original chorus of “stop, children/what’s that sound/everybody look/what’s going down” as “stop, children/watch this sound/everybody look/what’s going on.”

The group borrowed money and recorded the song on their own (Charmers handled the production) as their debut single, releasing it in 1969. With its wonderful (and slightly eerie) harmonies stretched over a classic rocksteady rhythm (one that bore little to no resemblance to the original American version), “Watch This Sound” became a huge Jamaican hit and was even adopted by the Skinheads in Britain, as well. Part of the song’s appeal in its Jamaican incarnation is the genius of the phrase “watch this sound,” which not only cleverly used one sense to describe another, but also alludes to the famous Jamaican dancehall sound systems, which were known, among other things, as “sounds.” While the song retains its original sense of protest, the Uniques’ version also has a subtle and joyous connection to the long-running Jamaican dancehall tradition, and with Smith’s delicately soaring lead tenor, is both more mysterious and less didactic (even though the lyrics, aside from the chorus, are essentially the same as Stills’), not to mention soothing, than the original by Buffalo Springfield.

The Uniques - “Watch This Sound”

Buffalo Springfield - “For What It’s Worth”