Andy Capp

Lynford Anderson aka Andy Capp (born 1941) is a Jamaican studio engineer, producer, and vocalist, best known for his 1968 hit “Pop a Top”.

Anderson was born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica in 1941, and gained his early studio experience working for the RJR radio station, after initially being employed there as a log keeper, having studied accountancy. From there he moved on to Ronnie Nasrullah’s recently-created WIRL studio, where he gained experience with a two-track mixer, under the guidance of Australian engineer Graeme Goodall. His engineering skills were used extensively by producer Leslie Kong, and he eventually moved into production himself, using an Ampex two-track mixing board to create remixes of tracks and to combine several tracks into a single song. He also founded the Upset record label in 1967 along with Lee “Scratch” Perry and trainee engineer Barrington Lambert. His self-productions included “Pop a Top”, which he described as the first ever Jamaican “talking” record (although a handful of deejay records had been released earlier), which at the time of its release in early 1968 was unusual in that its rhythm was noticeably faster than the prevailing rocksteady beat. “Pop a Top“‘s rhythm track was based on Dave Bartholomew’s “South Parkway Mambo”, and its lyric was based on a Canada Dry commercial; The song was later used by Canada Dry in an advertising campaign in the 1970s.