Johnny Nash- Reggae Music's American Connection
Johnny Nash & Bob Marley performing together at the Peckham Manor Boy's School, London in 1972.
It's hard to believe that a guy from Houston Texas who signed the Cowsills to his record label was also the first guy to bring reggae music to the ears of an American audience.
Most Americans first encountered reggae music with a series of Top 40 radio hits by a young R&B singer from Houston Texas named Johnny Nash. In the early Sixties, Johnny Nash was a moderately successful soul singer on the chittlin' circuit in United States.
Johnny Nash also signed the teenbopper family band, the Cowsills his own record label and produced an album by them. The Cowsills moved on to MGM Records, recorded their mega-hit
The Rain, The Park and Other Things & served as the inspiration for the television series about a family band,
The Partridge Family.
Following a visit to Jamaica in 1968, Nash decided to be the first artist to bring rocksteady and reggae music to the United States.
While in Jamaica, Nash was introduced to a trio of struggling reggae singers named Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer & Peter Tosh. Nash signed Marley, Tosh and Wailer to JAD Records label, and recorded two unsuccessful singles,
Bend Down Low &
Reggae on Broadway.
I Can See Clearly- Johnny Nash- Nash himself had better luck on the charts than the aspiring Wailers. In 1972 Nash wrote and recorded his own reggae styled song,
I Can See Clearly Now which rose to #1 on the American charts & #5 on the UK charts. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in November 1972. Ironically
I Can See Clearly Now sold more copies than any single ever recorded by the Wailers, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh or Bunny Wailer.
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Hold Me Tight- Johnny Nash- Following the success of
I Can See Clearly Now, Nash re-released a single,
Hold Me Tight which was originally released in 1968 in his earliest recording sessions in Jamaica. It rose to #5 both on the American & UK singles charts.
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Stir It Up- Johnny Nash- After
Hold Me Tight, Nash released his own cover of the Bob Marley song, Stir It Up, which rose to #12 on the American charts & #13 on the UK charts.
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It was the rapid succession of those three reggae styled Top 40 hits that got both American & UK record label executives interested in scouting the burgeoning reggae scene in Jamaica for new artists. There was a feeding frenzy of reggae artist signings by American & UK labels over the next few years, but none of those artists except Marley & Tosh, were as successful as Johnny Nash. Johnny Nash retired from music in the Eighties and has been intensely guarded about his privacy every since. It's too bad Nash remains silent because he was one of the earliest witnesses to the rise of reggae music and he's never spoken to anyone about his involvement in bringing reggae music to the United States.