Song of the Day 10/9: Johnny Nash, “Hold Me Tight”

All the obituaries for Johnny Nash, who died Tuesday at 80, cited his biggest hit, “I Can See Clearly Now,” which topped the charts in 1972 and, thanks to TV commercials, has never left the public consciousness. It was the first reggae-influenced song to reach No. 1, but it wasn’t Nash’s first foray into Jamaican music. This rock-steady tune, recorded in Kingston in 1967, made it into the Top 5 in the U.S. a year later, cracking open the door that led the island’s music and musicians into the mainstream.

Nash wasn’t Jamaican — he was from Houston, where he landed a gig on a local TV show as a young teen. By 16 he was being featured on Arthur Godfrey’s national show and had a recording contract. He was marketed as a rival to Johnny Mathis, and you can hear the similarity on his 1957 cover of “A Very Special Love,” which had been a hit for Doris Day. It reached No. 23 in Billboard, his highest-charting single until “Hold Me Tight.”

Nash moved to Jamaica in 1965, when his career petered out in the wake of the British Invasion. He met Bob Marley at a party in Kingston in 1967. He was so impressed with Marley’s songs that he and his manager/business partner signed him to a publishing contract. He recorded four of Marley’s tunes, including “Stir It Up,” which was released as a single in the UK in 1972.

Absurd as it sounds, the tune that perhaps best captured Nash’s vocal range and clarity of tone might be the theme song he recorded for the animated cartoon “The Mighty Hercules,” a sword-and-sandal cartoon that ran from 1963 to 1966.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZ9cwFrj_o