Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff (James Chambers, 1944–2025): Jamaican ska and reggae singer. “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” (UK No. 6, 1969), “Many Rivers to Cross”, star of The Harder They Come (1972).
Beverley's and Leslie Kong
James Chambers was born in Saint James parish and moved to Kingston as a teenager. Unable to find a producer, he talked the Chinese-Jamaican shop owner Leslie Kong into starting a label, Beverley's. His 1962 single "Hurricane Hattie," cut when he was a teenager, was a Jamaican hit, and he stayed with Kong as producer until Kong's death in 1971. Kong's Beverley's roster also included Desmond Dekker, Derrick Morgan, the Maytals and, briefly, Bob Marley.
London and Island Records
Cliff signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records and moved to the United Kingdom in the mid 1960s. Island first tried to market him to a rock audience with little success. The breakthrough came with the Kong-produced album Jimmy Cliff (1969, released in the US as Wonderful World, Beautiful People). The title single reached No. 6 in the UK and No. 25 in the US. The same sessions produced "Vietnam" (UK No. 46, 1970), which Bob Dylan called the best protest song he had heard, and "Many Rivers to Cross," later covered by UB40 and Cher. His version of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" reached UK No. 8 in 1970, and he wrote "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" for The Pioneers (UK No. 5, 1971).
The Harder They Come
In Perry Henzell's 1972 film The Harder They Come, Cliff played Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin, a country youth who comes to Kingston to record and ends up an outlaw. The soundtrack, with Cliff's title song, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" and "Many Rivers to Cross" alongside tracks by The Maytals, Desmond Dekker and The Melodians, carried reggae to audiences in the US and Europe.
Later career and honours
Cliff kept recording and touring through the following decades. He won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album for Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012). Jamaica awarded him the Order of Merit in 2003, and in 2010 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the second Jamaican after Bob Marley. He died in Kingston on 24 November 2025, aged 81.
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Discography
Studio albums 38
Collaborative albums 6
EPs & mixtapes 8
Compilations 43
Albums on Breakbeat Archive
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