Good morning! What more perfect song for today than this 1972 chart buster by the guy who discovered Bob Marley! Open your sunroof, put on your shades and turn your newspaper up LOUD ! It's Friday, y'all !!!
"I Can See Clearly Now," written and recorded by Johnny Nash, was a single from the album of the same name and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdom when it was released in 1972, reaching no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was covered by many artists throughout the years, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff, who re-recorded it for the motion picture soundtrack of "Cool Runnings," where it reached the top 20 at no. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.
John Lester "Johnny" Nash, Jr. (born August 19, 1940) an American rocksteady singer-songwriter, was best known in the U.S. for his 1972 hit, "I Can See Clearly Now” and was also one of the first non-Jamaican singers to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica.
Born John Lester Nash, Jr. in Houston, Texas, he began as a pop singer in the 1950s. He released four albums for ABC-Paramount, with his self named debut in 1958. Around 20 singles were released between 1958 & 1964 on a variety of labels such as Groove, Chess, Argo and Warners. Nash also wrote the theme song to the syndicated cartoon The Mighty Hercules which appeared on television from 1963-1966.
In 1965, Johnny Nash and Danny Sims formed the JODA Records label in New York.
Nash recorded several hits in Jamaica, where he travelled in early 1968. Nash planned to try breaking the local rocksteady sound in the United States. In Jamaica he was introduced to a local struggling vocal group, Bob Marley & The Wailing Wailers. Members Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and Rita Marley were all signed to an exclusive recording contract with Nash’s JAD label and an exclusive publishing contract with Cayman music.
"I Can See Clearly Now" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in November 1972. "I Can See Clearly Now" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Nov. 4, 1972 and remained atop the chart for four weeks. It also spent the same four weeks atop the adult contemporary chart. The I Can See Clearly Now album includes four original Bob Marley compositions published by JAD: "Guava Jelly," "Comma Comma," "You Poured Sugar On Me" and the follow-up hit "Stir It Up." "There Are More Questions Than Answers" was a third hit single taken from the album.
JAD Records ceased to exist in 1971, but it was revived in 1997 by American Marley specialist Roger Steffens and French musician and producer Bruno Blum for the "Complete Bob Marley & the Wailers 1967-1972" ten-album series for which several of the Nash-produced Marley and Tosh tracks were mixed or remixed by Blum for release. Nash's biggest hits were the early reggae (rocksteady) tunes "Hold Me Tight" (a no. 5 hit in the US in 1968 and the UK, the tune used more than a year earlier in Score commercials) and "Stir It Up" (1971), the latter written by Bob Marley prior to Marley's international success.
Source: Wikipedia
Image: BBC
