Slinger Francisco was born in the fishing village of
Grand Roy, Grenada, West Indies, on 9 July 1935. He moved to
Trinidad as a one-year-old with his mother, He grew up in
Laventille, a suburb of
Port of Spain. He began singing as a small child, but his love of calypso was discouraged while at Newtown Boys Catholic School, where he sang in the choir. On leaving school, he began working for the government Control Board, but continued to perform calypso, which became the better paid of the two, and his residency at the Lotus Club made him a star locally. A live performance of "Yankees Gone" was included in the album
Jump Up Carnival in Trinidad. Sparrow refused to officially participate in the competition for the next three years, but he continued to perform unofficially, even winning another Road March title in 1958 with "P.A.Y.E." He did perform at the 1957 carnival in the Young Brigade Calypso Tent, where the four songs he performed were recorded and later released on the album
Calypso Kings and Pink Gin. The rivalry went on for several years. In January 1958, Sparrow, along with longtime rival
Lord Melody, travelled to New York City seeking access to the American music audience. Sparrow had already been recording with Balisier and
Cook Records, and with Belafonte's help he also began to record for
RCA Victor. He did not achieve the success he had hoped for; he said in a 2001 interview, "When nothing happened for me, I went back to England and continued on with my career." and "Mae Mae". He also began recording for his own label, National Recording. He had his greatest success internationally in the 1970s, starting with the album
The Best Of, featuring live recordings in
Brooklyn, New York of Sparrow favorites. In 1974, with
Van Dyke Parks as producer, he recorded the album
Hot and Sweet for
Warner Bros. in Miami, and the following year reunited with Byron Lee for the
Sparrow Dragon Again album. In 1978, he recorded the album
Only a Fool in London for
Trojan Records.
Soca (2006) As
soca began to supplant calypso in popularity in Trinidad and Tobago during the late 1970s and early 1980s, His last major title came in 1992, with "Both of Them" and "Survival" winning him the Calypso Monarch title. in a 2001 interview, he mentioned that he had been singing and performing a "
Gospel-lypso" hybrid. He also did a remake of his "Congo Man" song with fellow Trinidadian
Machel Montano on the 2008
Flame On album. In 2010, Sparrow left the stage in a wheelchair after a performance in Trinidad, and later that year was hospitalised after suffering an
inguinal hernia while performing in
Maryland. He made a full recovery and continued to tour internationally. In September 2013, he was due to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Trinidad & Tobago consulate in New York, but was admitted to a New York hospital, where he fell into a coma for two weeks before regaining consciousness. He returned to public performance in January 2014, with a 40-minute set at a bar in
Brooklyn, New York. At the end of the year, he was voted "Express Individual of the Year 2014" by the
Trinidad Express. In 2020, he released
Live at 85!, a recording from December 2019 of a show at
Joe's Pub in New York City. ==Lyrics==