Pat Kelly
b. 1949, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Kelly spent a year in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, during 1966 studying electronics, before returning to Jamaica. In 1967 he replaced Keith ‘Slim’ Smithas lead singer of the Techniques, who along with Alton Ellis, the Paragons and the Melodians were spearheading Duke Reid's campaign to dominate Jamaican music via his epochal rocksteadyproductions. With Kelly's wholly distinctive and utterly beautiful falsetto soaring over the impeccable harmonies of Winston Riley and Bruce Ruffin, the trio easily maintained the flow of hits they had begun when Smith had been lead singer. Their first record, an adaptation of a Curtis Mayfield tune, You'll Want Me Back, but re-titled, You Don't Care in Jamaica, held the number 1 position in the local chart for six weeks. Their next, another Mayfield cover, this time adapted from the Impressions Minstrel And Queen and retitled Queen Majesty, enjoyed similar hit status, as did the subsequent My Girl and Love Is Not A Gamble. All are bona fide classics of Jamaican vocal harmony, rocksteady style. In 1968 Kelly went solo, joining the roster of artists under the wing of the leading producer Bunny Lee. His first effort for Lee was another Curtis Mayfield cover version, Little Boy Blue. Subsequently he provided Lee with the biggest-selling Jamaican hit of 1969, How Long Will It Take, a landmark recording in that it was the first Jamaican record to feature a string arrangement, overdubbed when the song was released in the UK by the Palmer brothers on their Unity label. Other hits and an album for Lee soon followed, and Kelly's superb, Sam Cooke-derived falsetto even came to the attention of the Beatles’ Apple label, who reputedly offered Kelly a £25,000 contract. Unable to act on this offer because of prior contractual commitments, he returned to Jamaica disillusioned, where he recorded sporadically, enjoying a huge local hit for producer Phill Pratt in 1972, Talk About Love, as well as recording songs at Treasure Isle studios in the same period with former Gaylad, B.B. Seaton. He then returned to engineering, principally for the Channel One studios owned by the Hookim brothers. Throughout the late '70s and early '80s he continued recording, for Winston Riley, Phill Pratt, Bunny Lee and the London-based sound system owner Fatman. He still records occasionally, his latest album being issued in 1989, and his contribution as one of the great Jamaican soul voices cannot be underestimated.