Johnny Nash
Artist. Rocksteady, reggae
- Active
- 1953-1986
- Sunrise
- August 19, 1940, Houston, Texas
- Sunset
- October 6, 2020, Houston, Texas
- Also known as
- John Lester Nash Jr.
Johnny Nash was an American pop and soul singer who became one of the first non-Jamaicans to make Jamaican music a hit abroad, and who, with his business partner Danny Sims, played a large part in Bob Marley's early career.
From Houston, he had his own television show at thirteen and national success as a teenage crooner in the 1950s. In 1965 he and Sims moved their families and business to Jamaica, and in 1966 the radio deejay Neville Willoughby took him to a Rastafari grounation where he heard Bob and Rita Marley; he told Sims, "the guy's a superstar." The Wailers signed to Sims's Cayman Music and recorded for the partners' JAD label.
Nash's own rocksteady records made the British charts: "Hold Me Tight" reached number five in 1968, and "You Got Soul" and "Cupid" both reached number six in 1969, making him one of the ten best-selling male singers in Britain that year. In 1970 he went to Sweden to star in and score a film, taking Marley with him, and in London the Wailers recorded backing tracks for his I Can See Clearly Now album. Bradley notes that the reggae was then sweetened and remixed into Caribbean pop. The album gave him the title hit, his signature song, and versions of Marley's "Stir It Up" and "Guava Jelly" that exposed Marley's writing to a wide audience; "I Can See Clearly Now" topped the American charts in 1972. He made his last album in 1986 and departed at home in Houston in 2020.
Last updated October 25, 2026
Connections
- The Wailers (artist)
- Bob Marley (collaborator)
- Peter Tosh (collaborator)
- Bunny Wailer (collaborator)
- Rita Marley (collaborator)
- Danny Sims (collaborator)
- Ernie Smith (collaborator)
- Mortimer Planno (worked with)
Notes
- Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 241, 411; Hillel Italie, "Johnny Nash, Singer of 'I Can See Clearly Now,' Dies at 80," Associated Press, October 7, 2020, https://www.clickorlando.com/entertainment/2020/10/07/johnny-nash-singer-of-i-can-see-clearly-now-dies-at-80/.
- Italie, "Johnny Nash Dies at 80."
- Danny Sims's account in Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 403, 405, 407; Italie, "Johnny Nash Dies at 80."
- "Hold Me Tight," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/johnny-nash-hold-me-tight/; "You Got Soul," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/johnny-nash-you-got-soul/; "Cupid," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/johnny-nash-cupid/; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 241, 242, 407.
- Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 408, 409, 410, 412.
- Italie, "Johnny Nash Dies at 80." The record reached number five in Britain. "I Can See Clearly Now," Official Charts, accessed October 6, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/johnny-nash-i-can-see-clearly-now/; Bradley lists "Stir It Up," "Guava Jelly" and "There Are More Questions Than Answers" among its hits. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 410.
- Italie, "Johnny Nash Dies at 80."
