He soon signed to Island Records and moved to the United Kingdom. In 1964, Cliff was chosen as one of Jamaica's representatives at the World's Fair in New York and in the same year Cliff was featured in a program called "This is Ska!" alongside Prince Buster, Toots and the Maytals, and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. Ĭliff's later local hit singles included "King of Kings", "Dearest Beverley", "Miss Jamaica", and "Pride and Passion". It was produced by Kong, with whom Cliff remained until Kong's death from a heart attack in 1971. After two singles that failed to make much impression, his career took off when "Hurricane Hattie" became a hit while he was aged 14. "One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, pushed myself in and convinced one of them, Leslie Kong, to go into the recording business, starting with me," he writes in his own website biography. Career 1960s and 1970s Ĭliff sought out many producers while still going to school, trying to get his songs recorded without success. When Chambers was 14, his father took him to Kingston, where he would take up the stage name Jimmy Cliff. James, listening to a neighbour's sound system. He began writing songs while still at primary school in St. Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers on 30 July 1944 in Saint James, Colony of Jamaica. Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae around the world, and Club Paradise. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.Ĭliff is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as " Many Rivers to Cross", " You Can Get It If You Really Want", " The Harder They Come", " Reggae Night", and " Hakuna Matata", and his covers of Cat Stevens's " Wild World" and Johnny Nash's " I Can See Clearly Now" from the film Cool Runnings. James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor.
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