1898: Nor­man le Blanc (Richard Coeur de Li­on) is giv­en the ho­n­our of singing the first ca­lyp­so in Eng­lish. Be­fore that ca­lyp­so was sung in French, African or pa­tois.

Jern­ing­ham the Gov­er­nor

Is rudenss in you

Is fast­ness in you

To break the laws of the Bor­ough Coun­cil

Hen­ry Forbes, the Se­nior In­ven­tor was al­so cred­it­ed with pi­o­neer­ing the move to Eng­lish

1912: The first ca­lyp­so record­ing was made. Lovey's or­ches­tra played Man­go vert.

1934: Atil­la and Li­on trav­elled to New York to record for the Amer­i­can Record Com­pa­ny. Hou­di­ni was in the USA even be­fore so he al­so con­tributed to this.

1939: The Growl­ing Tiger (Neville Mar­cano) be­comes the first of­fi­cial ca­lyp­so monarch/ king singing Join A Labour Union.

1945: The An­drew Sis­ters re­made Lord In­vad­er's Rum and Co­ca Co­la tak­ing it to num­ber one on the Amer­i­can charts. The "copy­right" court case which fol­lowed is now an im­por­tant part of kaiso his­to­ry.

When the Yan­kees first came to Trinidad

Some of the young girls were more than glad

They said that the Yan­kees treat them nice

And they give them a bet­ter price

They buy

Rum and Co­ca Co­la

Go down Point Cumana

Both moth­ers and daugh­ters

Work­ing for the Yan­kee dol­lar

1948: Kitch­en­er ar­rived in Eng­land via Aru­ba, Cu­ra�ao, and Ja­maica. He was not the on­ly ca­lyp­son­ian in Eng­land but cer­tain­ly he made the great­est im­pact

1956: Spar­row won the ca­lyp­so king/monarch com­pe­ti­tion with the now leg­endary 'Jean and Di­nah.'

Well the girls in town feel­ing bad

No more Yan­kees in Trinidad

They go­ing to close down the base for good

Them girls have to make out how they could

Is now they park up in town

In for a pen­ny and in for a pound

Yes is com­pe­ti­tion for so

Trou­ble in the town when the price drop low

So when you bounce up

Jean and Di­nah, Rosi­ta and Clementi­na

Round the cor­ner pos­ing

Bet your life is some­thing they sell­ing

And if you catch them bro­ken

You can get them all for noth­ing

Doh make a row

The Yan­kees gone and Spar­row take over now

1956: Amer­i­can Har­ry Be­la­fonte did an al­bum of men­to and kaiso en­ti­tled Ca­lyp­so the first long play­ing (LP) to sell a mil­lion copies. The al­bum in­cludes two ca­lyp­sos by King Ra­dio Man Smart Woman Smarter and Brown Skin Gyul but is even more fa­mous for the track Day O'Ba­nana Boat.

Come, Mr Tal­ly Man, tal­ly me ba­nana

Day­light come and me wan' go home.

1974: Lord Shorty, Ras Shorty I, does End­less Vi­bra­tions ar­guably the first ever so­ca song. More cer­tain though it is Shorty who names the new beat Sokah / So­ca since oth­ers like Mae­stro and Shad­ow are al­so cred­it­ed with help­ing to in­tro­duce this new sound.

Hit me horns!

Sexy

Change the ac­cent of Car­ni­val

To a groovy, groovy bac­cha­nal

Wail­ing, ex­press­ing

The old feel­ing do needs chang­ing

Wake up peo­ple, ex­am­ine your minds

Get with it, get with it, the change of the times

It's a new gen­er­a­tion

End­less vi­bra­tions

Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on!

Lelelelelelelele

Lelelelelelelele

Hit me horns

Come ba­by, oh ba­by jump with me

Come ba­by, oh ba­by rump with me

Wine­ing, it's Car­ni­val

Grind­ing, make bac­cha­nal

1974: Win­ston Bai­ley, the Shad­ow, is To­ba­go bred though not To­ba­go born. Eas­i­ly the most enig­mat­ic char­ac­ter in Ca­lyp­so his­to­ry he is a mu­si­cal and lyri­cal ge­nius. Shad­ow (born Oc­to­ber 2, 1941) won the Road March in 1974 and 2001 with Bass­man and Stranger re­spec­tive­ly. He won the Ca­lyp­so Monarch in 2000 with What's Wrong With Me and Scratch Meh Back. He was the first to win both the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch and the Road March com­pe­ti­tions si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, a feat he ac­com­plished in 2001 with his song Stranger. He was award­ed the Trinidad & To­ba­go Hum­ming Bird Medal (Sil­ver) in 2003. Buk­ka Ren­nie says of Shad­ow He copies no one, he im­i­tates no one, he com­pos­es like no one be­fore and like no one ever will, he is com­plete­ly and to­tal­ly orig­i­nal in his think­ing, his way of see­ing and his way of ar­tic­u­lat­ing. There can on­ly be one Shad­ow. Songs like Mu­sic (Din­go­lay), Pover­ty is Hell, My Be­lief, The Sto­ry of Life and Toe Jam and tes­ti­fy to his philo­soph­i­cal bril­liance. 'They telling me what to do and they telling me where to go / The knowl­edge I want to get is how to out­smart Mr Death.

1982: Alphon­sus Cas­sel, Montser­rat ca­lyp­so great Ar­row gave the world Hot Hot Hot, the most pop­u­lar so­ca song in the his­to­ry of the art form

Ole ole ole ole

Ole ole ole ole

Feel­ing hot hot hot

Feel­ing hot hot hot

Feel­ing hot hot hot

Feel­ing hot hot hot

Meh mind on fire

Meh soul on fire

Feel­ing hot hot hot

Par­ty peo­ple all around me

Feel­ing hot hot hot

What to do on a night like this

The mu­sic sweet Ah cyah re­sist

We need a par­ty song

A fun­da­men­tal jam

So leh we rumb bum bum bum

So leh we rumb bum bum bum­ex­po­nents.