World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

George Faith

Artist. Reggae, roots

Active
1970-2003
Sunrise
July 6, 1946, Rae Town, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
April 16, 2003
Also known as
Earl George, Earl George Lawrence

George Faith was a soul-influenced singer whose album of covers for Lee Perry, To Be a Lover, made his name, and who recorded for most of the leading producers of the 1970s.

Born Earl George Lawrence in Rae Town, the son of a barber and a factory cook, he made his first single, "See Me," for Clancy Eccles in 1970 and recorded as Earl George for Glen Lee, Lloyd Campbell and Phil Pratt. At the Black Ark he cut eight covers, among them his version of William Bell's "I Forgot to Be Your Lover," retitled "To Be a Lover"; Perry renamed him George Faith, and Island issued the album on its Black Swan label in 1977. Justin Gage writes of the "velvet nonchalance" of his voice, and Ray Hurford called him "one of the great soul singers to come out of Jamaica in the seventies," though he thought Perry's mix on the Super Eight album left him "fighting against the mix." Perry favored singers with a delicate delivery who could float above his backing tracks, Faith among them, and his voice is one of the fragments woven through Super Ape.

He went on to record for Bunny Lee and Alvin Ranglin, and was among the singers who moved freely between love songs and roots in the later 1970s. His later albums ran from Loving Something (1979) to Reggae's Love & Affection (2002). He departed in 2003, at fifty-six; the cause was cancer.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. "George Faith," Wikipedia, accessed October 21, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Faith, citing his Guardian obituary (May 23, 2003) and David Katz, People Funny Boy (2000).
  2. "George Faith."
  3. "George Faith," which quotes Perry: "You have a lot of faith. You should change your name to George Faith." Bear Family gives the original as William Bell's "I Forgot To Be Your Lover." "To Be A Lover," product information, Bear Family Records, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.bear-family.de/dealer_pdf/clp1222_e.pdf.
  4. Justin Gage, "George Faith :: To Be A Lover," Aquarium Drunkard, May 20, 2024, https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/05/20/george-faith-to-be-a-lover.
  5. Ray Hurford, "George Faith/Earl George," Small Axe, accessed November 5, 2026, https://sites.google.com/view/smallaxereggae/george-faithearl-george.
  6. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 328, 359.
  7. "George Faith." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 367.
  8. "George Faith."

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map