Slim Smith

Kingston

Keith Smith was born in Kingston on October 5, 1948. As a teenager he sang with the Victors Youth Band, praised at the 1964 Jamaica Festival, and he was the first lead voice of the Techniques, singing on their Duke Reid sides including “Little Did You Know.”

The Uniques

He left the Techniques in 1966 and formed the Uniques with Roy Shirley and Franklyn White, later with Jimmy Riley and Lloyd Charmers. Working mostly with Bunny Lee, the Uniques cut “My Conversation” and “Watch This Sound.” He also recorded solo for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, where “Rougher Yet” became a riddim other singers kept coming back to.

Everybody Needs Love

His 1969 album Everybody Needs Love made him one of the most loved voices in Jamaica, and reggae historians often call him the greatest singer of the rocksteady era. He struggled badly with his mental health and spent time at Bellevue hospital. In October 1972 he cut his arm breaking a window to get into his parents’ house and bled to death before he got help. He was 24.