45RPM: #30 Born For A Purpose/Reason For Living 12" - Dr Alimantado (1979)

I have a number of favourite Reggae 45's and maybe over time I'll post a few more in this ongoing series 45RPM. I've chosen this one because it is quite possibly my favourite one ever (just beating out Frankie Paul's Inferiority Complex).


Dr Alimantado wrote the song Born For A Purpose/Reason For Living in 1976 after an accident in Kingston, Jamaica where a bus had plowed into him. It was originally released on Ital Sounds Records in Jamaica and then in 1977 it was released in the UK on London based Reggae Label Greensleeves as two singles - one as Born For A Purpose backed by Reason For Living and the second as Still Alive backed by Life All Over.

Probably as a direct result of the success of The Best Dressed Chicken in Town album (which was actually a collection of Dr Alimantado's early singles released in Jamaica during the mid-70's) Greensleeves reissued the singles but this time as a 12" and combined both songs, so Born For A Purpose/Reason For Living appeared on the A-Side and Still Alive/Life All Over on the B-Side.

So impressed by Dr Alimantado and Born For A Purpose The Clash even name checked him in the song Rudie Can't Fail! - "Like the doctor who was born for a purpose Rudie can't fail"

A-Side

Born For A Purpose/Reason For Living

B-Side

Still Alive/Life All Over