Songoftheday 2/28/19 - I think I can make it now the pain is gone, all of the bad feelings have disappeared...
from the album Cool Runnings (Original Soundtrack) (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from reggae artist Jimmy Cliff, who grew up in the area around Montego Bay, Jamaica, where he performed music since he was in school. He was eventually signed by Island Records, and relocated to the UK to continue his career. He released his debut album Hard Road To Travel in 1967, but it wasn't until his second studio record Jimmy Cliff (retitled Wonderful World, Beautiful People) that he got his breakthrough moment, when the title song "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" hit #6 in Britain and was hit first success in America, landing at #25 on the pop Hot 100 in 1970. Also on that album was the reggae classic "Many Rivers To Cross", which he wrote, that eventually gained respect from its inclusion on his star-making movie role in The Harder They Come in 1972. Later that year, Cliff released a cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" from his album of the same name in , which was an international success, going to #2 in the singles chart in the Swizerland, #3 in Sweden, and #8 in the UK.
In 1972, Cliff was cast in the seminal Reggae movie The Harder They Come. A cornerstone album in that genre, the record remains on the Rolling Stone best albums of the rock era list even now. His career stalled out a bit in tne 1970s, before signing to Columbia in the states, and again landing five minor R&B hits in the 1980s, including "We Are All One", which peaked at #76 in 1984. That song from his The Power And The Glory set. That album also landed a #1 hit in New Zealand at #93 with "Reggae Night".
It wasn't until twenty years after The Harder They Come that Cliff would get his biggest American hit. Done for the soundtrack to the Jamaican bobsled team story that starred the late John Candy, Cliff's contribution, "I Can See Clearly Now" was a reggae remake of a pop/country classic by Johnny Nash, who sent the song to #1 on Billboard's Pop Hot 100 chart in 1975...
For Cliff's version, producer Paul Henton lifted the tone to a more positive and sped-up beat, earning the respect of critics, while fans of the movie helped get the song on radio.
Cliff's take on "I Can See Clearly Now" became his biggest success in America, reaching the pop Top 20 in January of 1994. The song was a huge success on "easy listening" radio here, climbing to #9 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary chart, while slipping on to their R&B list for a few weeks, peaking at #98. Internationally, the single topped the chart in France, Iceland, and New Zealand, and made the top-40 in Canada (#16), Australia (#17), the UK (#23), Belgium (#32), and the Netherlands (#39).
A year after his Cool Runnings success, Cliff recorded another remake for another movie - this time "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher" for the Kevin Bacon film The Air Up There - and that song almost made the pop chart in America, "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #117. Jimmy again had a hand in a movie soundtrack hit when his version of "Hakuna Matata" with Lebo M. from the straight-to-video sequel to The Lion King, Rhythm Of The Pride Lands. That version reached the top ten in Belgium (#6), France (#7), and the Netherlands (#10), while in America it climbed to #26 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #105. Since then he's continued to release music, and in 2010 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Right after that he put out a pair of critically-acclaimed albums produced by punk legend Tim Armstrong, The Sacred Fire EP and his most recent studio set in 2012, Rebirth. Along with Bunny Wailer, he is the biggest living legend in reggae music today.
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Here's Cliff appearing live on Letterman to sing "I Can See Clearly Now", and it remains on my list of my favorite performances from the show of all time.
And here he is a year later at Woodstock '94...
Besides Nash and Cliff, many, many other artists have covered the positive creed, to varying success. In 1973, Gladys Knight & The Pips included it on their Imagination album, with the Pips singing lead...
Five years later, Ray Charles went to #35 in the R&B chart in Billboard with his version...
In 1990, Irish soul/rock band Hothouse Flowers also took on "I Can See Clearly Now", and had a British top-40 hit with it at #23, and went all the way to #5 in their homeland...
And lastly, back to Jimmy Cliff for a clip of him live at Glastonbury in 2011...
Up tomorrow: Rapper introduces himself with a question.
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