Now hugely popular in the U.K., and on his way in the U.S., Priest recorded what would become his biggest-selling album, Bonafide. Elsewhere, he embraced slinky lovers rock grooves to a greater extent than ever before, and even made a rare detour into social consciousness with the Beres Hammond duet "How Can We Ease the Pain?"
successes in "Strollin' On" and the Van Morrison cover "Crazy Love." However, it was 1988's Sly & Robbie-produced Maxi Priest that ranked as his true breakthrough his Top 30 cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" gave him his first American hit, and another cover, Robert Palmer's "Some Guys Have All the Luck," kept his hit streak alive in the U.K. hit "In the Springtime." His 1986 follow-up, Intentions, featured two more U.K.
A more traditional reggae set than his subsequent releases, it featured production by Robinson and live instrumental backing from the band Caution, and spun off the U.K. Priest signed with Virgin Records and released his debut album, You're Safe, in 1985. It wasn't long before his contacts there discovered that he could sing as well, and soon he was participating in live dancehall shows in 1984, he and Paul "Barry Boom" Robinson also co-produced Phillip Levi's "Mi God Mi King," the first U.K.-born reggae single to hit number one in Jamaica. He was working as a carpenter when he was invited to build speaker boxes for the prominent Saxon International sound system. His mother was active in the Pentecostal church, and the family grew up singing gospel music together Elliott would later convert to Rastafarianism, at which point he changed his name to Maxi Priest. He was the eighth of nine children, born to parents who had emigrated from Jamaica several years before his birth. Priest was born Max Elliott on Jin the Lewisham area of London. He enjoyed serious commercial success with albums like 1990's Bonafide, and continued releasing new music as the years went on, staying active with records like 2007's Refused, 2019's Shaggy-produced effort It All Comes Back to Love, and 2020's United State of Mind, a collaboration with Robin Trower and Livingstone Brown. His lovers rock vocal chops and flirtations with pop and R&B styles scored him multiple worldwide hits, including the trans-Atlantic chart-topper "Close to You," and a sunny cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World." Priest's silky-smooth voice was ideally suited for light, romantic material that fused reggae backbeats with R&B's romanticism, and his most popular work was as sensual as it was soulful. British reggae star Maxi Priest rose up through the late '80s and '90s to become one of the most internationally popular reggae singers since Bob Marley.
0 kommentar(er)
