Song:Take It Easy
Album:Let's Do Rocksteady: The Story Of Rocksteady
Because it is considered to be the song that established the Rocksteady style of Jamaican music, Hopeton Lewis' 1966 hit Take It Easy is a landmark song. Lewis isn't as well known as he should be because he turned to gospel nusic in the 70s. He was born Oct. 3, 1947 in Kingston, Jamaica. His mother died when he was two so he lived with various relatives and grew up singing in church. By age 15, he had formed his first group The Regals. By 1966 he was recording for Ken Khouri at Federal Studios. Take It Easy became a big hit in Jamaica and by 1967 the style of music was labelled as Rocksteady. It still sounds great today. Lewis won the 1970 Festival Song competition with Boom Shacka Lacka and then he became lead singer of Byron Lee & The Dragonaires. But he left in 1973 and has been producing and recording gospel music ever since and still does that on his own label today. Lewis recorded Take It Easy twice and the original 1966 version is mostly on box sets including this 2CD comp from Sanctuary Records. I like it because it looks specifically at the Rocksteady style of Jamaican music. And it has the original 1966 version of Take it Easy. Here's Hopeton Lewis performing Take It Easy at Club Soca in Brooklyn, NY 1990 followed by an interview.
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