"My Jamaican Guy" was the third single to Grace Jones' 1982 album
Living My Life, her third and last album recorded in the
Compass Point Studios in
Nassau, Bahamas. The track showcased
Caribbean music-inspired
reggae/
dub sound. Jones penned the song herself, revealing in a 2010 interview that it was written about
Tyrone Downie of
Bob Marley's
The Wailers, who "was with somebody else. He was a beautiful guy. He doesn't even know I wrote it about him." The song is largely written in
Jamaican Patois. Jones' mother Marjorie provided backing vocals but, as a
pastor's wife, wasn't credited for fear of upsetting church elders. "
Cry Now, Laugh Later", another
Living My Life track, was released on the side B, and later got a separate A-side release on American market. In Japan, "Everybody Hold Still" made the B-side. That release featured a unique edit of "My Jamaican Guy", as well as a different cover. The US and the UK 12" versions of the track differed substantially; the US version (7:01) was in fact the unedited and unremixed album master and was later included on the 1998 compilation
Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions. The UK 12" credits separately "My Jamaican Guy" and "J. A. Guys (Dub)", but the tracks run together as one; the mix opens with the first four minutes of the
Living My Life album version, then cuts to the three last minutes of the dub version "J. A. Guys" - the full length version of which in turn was released as the B-side of the US 12" "
Nipple to the Bottle". Both the UK 12" mix of "My Jamaican Guy" and the "J. A. Guys" dub remain unreleased on CD. The iconic image on the single cover was created by
Jean-Paul Goude, who was the singer's partner at that time and worked on some of her record artworks. A version of it was later used as a cover of her final "best of" compilation to date,
The Ultimate Collection. == Music video ==