BIOGRAPHY
I tried many producers while still going to school studing radio and tv trying to get the songs recorded without much luck. I entered talent shows and won some and was cheated on some. One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing ,I pushed myself in and sang for the Chinese owners of the store and convinced one of them Leslie Kong to go into the recording business starting with me.
My second recording with him Hurricane Hattie became a number one hit in Jamaica. I followed that hit up with Miss Jamaica, One Eyed Jacks, King of Kings and Leslie Kong went on to become King Kong among the producers in Jamaica.
This was the ska era of Jamaican Music.
Chris Blackwell a Jamaican/British music producer/businessman was the point man in the UK for Jamaican Music.
I was on my way to fulfilling my mission when I met him while invited to perform along with other artists at the NY's World Fair.
He invited me to relocate to England after that. My sirjourn to Europe was full of valuable experiences. I recalled the racism I encountered in the UK with my Band, in housing, accommodation and just day to day living. Racism is something I had known even in "Somerton" when spending social pastime at the river swimming and cooking. Some of my friends would say, look I am browner than you, which means it is better to be brown and best to be white which I found out is international racism. In the UK the difference is you would be told up front we don't rent or sell to blacks whereas in Jamaica racism was subliminally suggested. So racially I had to fight for my identity and my survival.
Then musically I had to be flexible to keep working. Culturally I had to learn to overcome the shock. After about four years in Europe touring and recording I was invited to perform at an international song festival in Brazil which proved very successful for me. I journeyed through all South America touring and writing song in Argentina, Chille, Uraguay, Colombia, Panama and Mexico ending up in Miami where I finished some of songs. Wonderful World Beautiful People was one of them which became my first international hit.
From Miami I went home to Jamaica after 4 years away where I recorded the songs except for Many Rivers To Cross which I recorded in NY where I put the finishing touch on the recordings.
I return to the UK with the finished product. The Album was put out on Island Records Blackwell's company as all my other recordings I had done up to that time I decided to call the Album just Jimmy Cliff even though it was called Wonderfull World Beautifull People in the US.
My mission was increasingly being realised. I continued writing, recording and co-produceding with Leslie Kong one of the hits called Let your Yea Be Yea for The Pioneers, another hit for Desmond Decca called You Can Get It If You Really Want and a minor hit for Millie Small called Honey Hush.
I scored another hit for myself with a Cat Stevens song Wild World. There were a few other minor hits in the UK before I was offered to play the lead role in a movie to be shot in Jamaica The Harder They Come which became a landmark movie and put my career to another level.
I was now being recognised as an actor the thing I love to do the most. This movie also expose the world to the music visually that has now become know as Reggae.
