Keisha Patterson - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

There are some aeroplanes that cannot land at certain airports because there is simply not enough runway to accommodate them. Similarly, What About Me is not enough song to comfortably contain Keisha Patterson's fantastic voice.

It is not the first time that a Jamaican singer has taken a shot at it, as Myrna Hague did a version for Studio One, but I find that such lyrically sparse songs work better with uptempo reggae (Marcia Griffiths' Feel Like Jumping has about eight lines and lots of 'la la la'), but not lover's rock.

Song of a forlorn lover

The song of a forlorn lover who is not even invited to the wedding of the man who she had her eyes and ear set on shows off Pattersons's good range. After she starts on an appropriate, mournful low on the opening lines ("you sent your wedding invitation to everyone, but me/I said I love you darling but you were blind, can't you see"), a couple lines later Patterson soars to a near wail of the refrain and title.

Fair enough, but the lover's rock reggae song proves to be lyrically sparse and it is not a poem and brevity is the soul of wit, more is required than the few lines that follow. She sings "everybody says I'd make a lovely bride, can't you see, if you were standing there beside me", then repeats the second couplet of the first verse "I didn't want to cry at the time, but you really blew my mind".

Wonderful variations

Lyrically, that is it. She sings more, of course, doing wonderful sounding variations of "what about me" and "I didn't want to cry at the time". And she goes easily into a higher register on the second go round of the first verse, changing the mood from mournful to plaintive, but it does not change the fact that it is very little song for a voice of that calibre.

There is a reason why big jets do not land at Tinson Pen and What About Me, despite being having good instrumentation and arrangement, is simply not enough for Patterson.

The result is a good sounding Busy Bee label production without the staying power that I would have enjoyed.

- Mel Cooke