World of Jamaican Music

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

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Pluto Shervington

Artist. Reggae

Active
1970s-present
Sunrise
August 13, 1950, St. Andrew, Jamaica
Sunset
January 19, 2024, Miami, Florida (pneumonia complications)

Leighton Keith Shervington, who recorded as Pluto, was a singer, bass player, engineer, and producer whose two patois novelty records of the middle 1970s reached a British audience that most Jamaican records of the period did not.

He was born in St. Andrew and joined a band called the Presidents at sixteen, in 1966, leaving a year later for the Hurricanes and then for Tomorrow's Children, the Federal showband. Their 1967 debut was a rocksteady treatment of Cher's "Bang Bang." When the band broke up in 1972 he set up Sound Associates Limited in New Kingston, a studio that made radio and television advertising, and worked from then on as much behind the desk as in front of the microphone.

"Ram Goat Liver" was written after the success of Ernie Smith's "Duppy or a Gunman" and Tinga Stewart's "Play de Music," both sung in heavy patois; Lee Perry thought enough of it to cut a version with Jimmy Riley. The follow-up, "Dat," in which a Rastafarian buys pork without naming it so that he can afford ganja, reached number six in Britain in 1976 on the new Opal label, and Shervington mimed it on Top of the Pops on February 19 and again on March 4. Trojan then reissued "Ram Goat Liver," which reached number thirty-five, and "Your Honour" gave him a third British chart entry in 1982. "I Man Born Yah" belongs to the same run. Lloyd Charmers produced "Boogie Bump" and "Here and Now"; he also cut the Heptones' "Book of Rules" and Al Green's "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)."

He produced as well, and two of those records outsold his own in Britain: Roman Stewart's "Hooray Festival," the 1975 Festival Song winner, and Paul Davidson's "Midnight Rider," which reached number ten in December 1975. He settled in Miami and worked there for the rest of his life, returning to Jamaica to perform. In 2001 he appeared with Ernie Smith and Lloyd Charmers at a Heineken Startime Independence showcase alongside the Abyssinians and Eric Donaldson, and in 2004 he was among the five musicians named Living Legends at King's House. His last engagement was the Jamaican Consulate's Love at Christmas show in Florida on December 19, 2023. He departed in a Miami hospital a month later, at seventy-three, survived by six children and two grandchildren.

Last updated October 23, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Claude Mills, "Reggae Singer Pluto Shervington Dead at 73," DancehallMag, January 20, 2024, https://www.dancehallmag.com/2024/01/20/news/reggae-singer-pluto-shervington-dead-at-73.html; see also "Reggae Vet Pluto Shervington Has Died," Reggae Vibes, January 2024, https://www.reggae-vibes.com/news/2024/01/reggae-vet-pluto-shervington-has-died/.
  2. The Merritone single, on Federal, is titled "Bang Bang Rock Steady." "Tomorrow's Children - Bang Bang Rock Steady," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/6146168.
  3. "Reggae Hitmaker Pluto Shervington Dies Aged 73," Our Today, January 21, 2024, https://our.today/reggae-hitmaker-pluto-shervington-dies-aged-73/, which places the studio on Haining Road.
  4. "Pluto Shervington," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_Shervington, citing Colin Larkin and Trojan Records.
  5. Official Charts shows "Dat" entering on February 7, 1976, and peaking at 6. "Pluto Shervington" and "Pluto," artist pages, Official Charts, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/15626/pluto-shervington/, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/15684/pluto/. For the Opal single, "Pluto Shervington - Dat," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1023355. The Top of the Pops dates are from "Pluto Shervington," Wikipedia.
  6. Official Charts gives the Trojan reissue of "Ram Goat Liver" a peak of 43 in April 1976, not 35, and "Your Honour" a peak of 19 in March 1982. "Pluto Shervington" and "Pluto," artist pages, Official Charts, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/15626/pluto-shervington/, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/15684/pluto/.
  7. The "Boogie Bump" single credits Lloyd Charmers and Paul Khouri as producers. "Pluto - Boogie Bump," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/8185546. No source was read for "Here and Now" or for the Heptones and Al Green credits.
  8. Both singles credit Shervington as producer. "Roman Stewart - Hooray Festival," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2978597; "Paul Davidson / The Organization - Midnight Rider," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1271102. "Midnight Rider" entered the British chart on December 27, 1975, and peaked at 10. "Paul Davidson," Official Charts, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/15566/paul-davidson/. No British chart entry for "Hooray Festival" was found, and "Dat" peaked higher than "Midnight Rider," so the claim that both outsold his own records is not supported.
  9. Mills dates his departure from Jamaica to 1977 and his settling in Miami to the 1980s. Mills, "Pluto Shervington Dead at 73."
  10. "Reggae Vet Pluto Shervington Has Died," Reggae Vibes.
  11. "Reggae Hitmaker Pluto Shervington Dies." The article names the Mighty Sparrow, Ernie Smith, David Rudder and Ken Lazarus among the honorees "and more."
  12. Howard Campbell, "Pluto Shervington Has Died," Jamaica Observer, January 19, 2024, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2024/01/19/pluto-shervington-died/.
  13. "Reggae Hitmaker Pluto Shervington Dies." Our Today says he died at his home in Kendall; DancehallMag says a hospital. Mills, "Pluto Shervington Dead at 73."

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