Junior Braithwaite
Artist. Ska
- Active
- 1961-1999
- Sunrise
- April 4, 1949, Kingston, Jamaica
- Sunset
- June 2, 1999, Kingston, Jamaica (life taken)
Franklin Delano Alexander Braithwaite was the youngest of the original Wailers and, by Coxsone Dodd's reckoning, the best singer among them. David Katz credits his "powerful tenor" with adding harmonic richness to several of the group's ska covers.
He was still a boy when the group first came together in Trench Town in 1961, and he sang lead on "It Hurts to Be Alone," "Habits," "Straight and Narrow Way," and "Don't Ever Leave Me." By his own account the group gave him the lead on "It Hurts to Be Alone" because he was about to emigrate. He was a Wailer for roughly eight months.
He moved to Chicago in 1964 intending to study medicine, lived there and in southern Wisconsin for twenty years, and returned to Jamaica in 1984 to work with Bunny Wailer on the reunion album Never Ending Wailers. Plans for a reunited group ended when Peter Tosh's life was taken in 1987. Braithwaite's life was taken, along with that of the musician Lawrence "Chaka" Scott, at Scott's home in Kingston in June 1999.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Bob Marley (collaborator)
- The Wailers (session work)
- Beverley Kelso (collaborator)
- Cherry Smith (collaborator)
Notes
- Katz: "Dodd considered Braithwaite the superior vocalist." David Katz, "Junior Braithwaite," Guardian, June 23, 1999, https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jun/23/guardianobituaries. A tribute site run with Roger Steffens's help quotes Dodd: "Braithwaite had the best voice in the group when they first came to me." "Biography," Junior Braithwaite Remembered, accessed October 2, 2026, http://www.iration.com/juniorbraithwaite/bio.html. Braithwaite gave his birth date as April 4, 1949, and said he was "only 13" at the first sessions; Katz gives his birth year as 1952. Junior Braithwaite, telephone interview by Roger Steffens, May 5, 1985, transcribed at "Junior Braithwaite Remembered," accessed October 2, 2026, http://www.iration.com/juniorbraithwaite/jbinterview.html; Katz, "Junior Braithwaite."
- Quoted in "Junior Braithwaite: Child of the Wailers," Jamaica Observer, May 29, 2022, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2022/05/29/junior-braithwaite-child-of-the-wailers.
- The Rough Guide says the Wailers "first got together" at Joe Higgs's yard in Trench Town in 1961, with Braithwaite among them, and that Dodd signed them in late 1963. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 38. Katz dates the formation to 1963. Katz, "Junior Braithwaite." Katz names "It Hurts to Be Alone" and "Habits" as Braithwaite leads; the other two titles come from Steffens, via the tribute site. "Biography," Junior Braithwaite Remembered. In 1985 Braithwaite himself said, "I only lead sung on 'It Hurts To Be Alone.'" Braithwaite, interview by Steffens.
- Braithwaite: "they had to have me do a solo just before I left, and so it only took a few hours to learn this new tune." The transcript dates the session to August 28, 1964. Braithwaite, interview by Steffens.
- Steffens, via the tribute site. "Biography," Junior Braithwaite Remembered. Katz says he left in September 1964. Katz, "Junior Braithwaite."
- Katz says he had planned to join his family in Chicago and "hoped to pursue a medical career." Katz, "Junior Braithwaite." Braithwaite recalled being "pre-med" at the Circle Campus in Chicago. Braithwaite, interview by Steffens. Steffens: he "lived primarily in Chicago and southern Wisconsin for the next 20 years, but returned to Jamaica in 1984." "Biography," Junior Braithwaite Remembered.
- Katz says Braithwaite and Vision Walker sang one song at Madison Square Garden in 1986, "but a planned tour never materialised." Katz, "Junior Braithwaite."
- Katz says three gunmen shot him "at the Kingston home of a musician friend" and gives the date of death as June 2, 1999. Katz, "Junior Braithwaite." The tribute site also gives June 2; Wikipedia gives June 20 in its text and names Scott. "Biography," Junior Braithwaite Remembered; "Junior Braithwaite," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Braithwaite.
