World of Jamaican Music

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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 →

Jimmy Riley

Artist. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1960s-2016
Sunrise
May 22, 1947, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
March 22 or 23, 2016, New York (cancer)

Jimmy Riley (born Martin James Norman Riley) was a singer and producer whose career ran from the rocksteady vocal groups through the Taxi era.

He was born in Jones Town, grew up in Waterhouse, and attended Kingston Senior School with Slim Smith. When Smith found success with the Techniques, Riley hung around the group without being taken into it and formed his own instead, the Sensations, with Cornell Campbell, Aaron "Dego" Davis, and Buster Riley, brother of the Techniques' Winston Riley. The group auditioned successfully for Duke Reid and had mid-1960s hits at Treasure Isle with "Everyday Is Just a Holiday" and "Those Guys."

He left in 1967 to join Slim Smith and Lloyd Charmers in the reformed Uniques, who recorded "Watch This Sound," "Gypsy Woman," and "My Conversation," and beat Bob Marley and the Wailers in a battle of the bands at the Ward Theatre. After the Uniques broke up he recorded for Bunny Lee, then began producing, both himself and others, including Slim Smith and Delroy Wilson. His own hits in the 1970s included "Tell the Youths the Truth," "Nyah Bingi," and "Clean Up the Streets."

His most successful period as a singer came in the 1980s with Sly and Robbie's Taxi productions. "Jimmy was a soul singer like David Ruffin and Teddy Pendergrass," Dunbar said; "we always went for a Motown kinda feel." "Love and Devotion" was his first Jamaican number one and reached the British charts in 1982, and his version of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" topped the British reggae chart in 1983. He moved to Miami late in the decade and stopped recording, returning to Jamaica in the early 1990s. The success of his son Tarrus Riley from the mid-2000s brought renewed attention and the two performed together; the elder Riley worked with Sly and Robbie again on "Pull Up Selector" in 2008. He departed in New York on March 22 or 23, 2016; the cause was cancer.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Billboard gives "Martin Norman Riley," born May 22, 1947, in Kingston. Patricia Meschino, "Legendary Jamaican Singer Jimmy Riley, 68, Dies in New York," Billboard, March 28, 2016, https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7311601/legendary-jamaican-singer-jimmy-riley-68-dies-new-york. Wikipedia notes that some sources gave 1954 at the time of his death. "Jimmy Riley," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Riley.
  2. Wikipedia, citing David Katz's Solid Foundation (2003) and the Jamaica Observer. "Jimmy Riley."
  3. Wikipedia, citing Katz. "Jimmy Riley." The Rough Guide names him among the Treasure Isle group singers who went on to solo success, "Jimmy Riley from the Sensations." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 65.
  4. Meschino, "Jimmy Riley, 68, Dies." Billboard adds a Sensations version of the Impressions' "Right On Time" for Bunny Lee.
  5. The Rough Guide says the Uniques' sides, with Slim Smith leading and "the harmonies of Jimmy Riley and Lloyd Charmers," were made "between 1967 and 1968 for Bunny Lee and his friend Winston Lowe," and lists "Gypsy Woman," "Conversation," and "Watch This Sound." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 76, 77. It credits Riley with writing the Uniques' "Love & Devotion." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 80. Bradley quotes Rupie Edwards, who bought the "My Conversation" rhythm from "Martin Riley of the Uniques," naming Bunny Lee as its original producer. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 332. "Jimmy Riley," Daily Telegraph, May 16, 2016, https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph/20160516/282346859032264.
  6. Wikipedia. "Jimmy Riley." Billboard dates his solo start to around 1969. Meschino, "Jimmy Riley, 68, Dies."
  7. Wikipedia. "Jimmy Riley." The books single out other 1970s sides: Bradley lists his brilliant Black Ark singles, and the Rough Guide names "Sons Of Negus" and his Bobby Womack cover "Woman's Gotta Have It" for Lee Perry. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 364; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 176, 226.
  8. Howard Campbell, "Remembering a Sensation," Jamaica Observer, March 25, 2016, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2016/03/25/remembering-a-sensation.
  9. Billboard: "Sly and Robbie produced Riley's first No. 1 hit in Jamaica, 'Love and Devotion,' which reached the British pop charts in 1982." Meschino, "Jimmy Riley, 68, Dies." The Rough Guide says that for Taxi he "cut a couple of songs associated with his old group." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 279.
  10. Wikipedia, citing AllMusic. "Jimmy Riley."
  11. Wikipedia. "Jimmy Riley."
  12. Wikipedia, citing the Jamaica Gleaner, says Tarrus features on the title track. "Jimmy Riley."
  13. Billboard says he died in New York, "where he was undergoing treatment for cancer." Meschino, "Jimmy Riley, 68, Dies." Billboard gives March 23 in New York; the Gleaner, the Observer and the Royal Gazette reported that he died on Tuesday, March 22, the Gleaner placing it in Florida. Patricia Meschino, "Legendary Jamaican Singer Jimmy Riley, 68, Dies In New York," Billboard, March 28, 2016, https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7311601/legendary-jamaican-singer-jimmy-riley-68-dies-new-york. "Music Fraternity Mourns Jimmy Riley," Jamaica Gleaner, March 24, 2016, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20160324/music-fraternity-mourns-jimmy-riley. Balford Henry, "Reggae Artiste Jimmy Riley Dies at 61," Jamaica Observer, March 23, 2016, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2016/03/22/reggae-artiste-jimmy-riley-dies-at-61.

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