Hopeton Lewis is a Jamaican singer. Lewis' rich baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

 has had a profound impact on Jamaican music, and his mixture of gospel and soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 elements helped set the template for early rocksteady

Rocksteady

Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor to ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, The Maytals and The Paragons. The term rocksteady comes from a dance style that was mentioned in the Alton...

.

Biography

Lewis began recording in the mid-1960s, and had one of the earliest rocksteady hits

Hit record

A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

 with "Take It Easy" in late 1966. He had several more Jamaican hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the first 'herb' song ever recorded in Jamaica, "Cool Collie". He worked for Duke Reid

Duke Reid

Treasure Isle re-directs here. For the game, see Treasure Isle .Arthur "Duke" Reid, CD was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner....

 as an arranger

Arrangement

The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

 and backing vocalist

Backing vocalist

A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

, and won the Festival Song Contest in 1970 with "Boom Shaka Lacka". He began working as a singer with Byron Lee & the Dragonaires

Byron Lee & the Dragonaires

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world...

, and in 1971 had a hit with "Grooving Out On Life".

Lewis continued to release records

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

, but his success after the early 1970s was limited. Lewis started his own record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

, Bay City Music, in the late 1980s and turned increasingly to gospel music

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

, releasing This Is Gospel in 1996, followed by Reaching Out to Jesus in 2000. Since then Lewis stuck with gospel, and has released a prolific series of album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s, including Lay Your Hands on Me Jesus, Caribbean Gospel Jubilee, Inner Peace, Hopeton Lewis Sings Country Gospel, The Many Moods of Gospel and The Inspirational Hopeton Lewis.

Albums

• Take It Easy (1968) Island
  Island Records
  Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
  
  
• Grooving Out On Life (1971) Dynamic Sounds/Trojan
  Trojan Records
  Trojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name Trojan comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck that was used as Duke Reid's sound system in Jamaica...
  
  
• Dynamic Hopeton Lewis (1974) Dragon
• Classic Gold Collection (1998) Rockstone
• Reaching Out to Jesus (2000) Orchard
• Take It Easy Musicrama
• This Is Gospel Sun Moon & Stars
• Love Life & Music (2007) Quartz
• All Night Bubblin

External links

• Hopeton Lewis at Roots Archives