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Artist
Pat Kelly
12+ albums
reggaerocksteadyskaskinhead reggaetrojan
about
Pat Kelly (1949 – 16 July 2019) (First album was spelled Pat Kelley) was a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae singer. He became the lead singer of The Techniques in the late 1960's and then left for a solo career. He was also a sound engineer for King Tubby's Studio or Channel One Recording Studio in the 1970s. Kelly was born in Kingston in 1949. After leaving school, he spent a year studying electronics in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States during 1966, before returning to Jamaica. In 1967, when Slim Smith left The Techniques, Kelly was brought in to replace him, recording for Duke Reid in the rocksteady era when Reid's Treasure Isle studio/label was dominating Jamaican music. Kelly's falsetto voice, strongly influenced by the American soul singers Curtis Mayfield, Smokey Robinson and Sam Cooke in combination with Winston Riley and Bruce Ruffin, maintained the success that The Techniques had enjoyed with Smith. The Techniques first record with Kelly, "You Don't Care", adapted from Curtis Mayfield's "You'll Want Me Back", spent six weeks at number one in the Jamaican singles chart, and was followed by further hits with "Queen Majesty", "My Girl", "Love Is Not a Gamble", "It's You I Love", and "Run Come Celebrate". In 1968, Kelly went solo, moving from Reid to Bunny Lee, and debuting with another Mayfield cover, "Little Boy Blue". Kelly's "How Long Will It Take" was the biggest-selling Jamaican single of 1969, and was the first Jamaican record to feature a string arrange
