Barry Biggs

Barry Biggs entered the world in 1946 in St. Andrew, Jamaica. Before stepping into performance he worked as an engineer at the Jamaican Broadcasting Company, then moved into recording as a harmony vocalist at Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studios. He performed with both the Crystalites and the Astronauts, eventually becoming lead singer of Byron Lee’s Dragonaires. While working at Lee’s Dynamic Sounds studio he cut his first Jamaican hit, a version of the Jackson 5’s “One Bad Apple,” and followed that success with his initial international release, the 1972 single “Work All Day.” Between 1976 and 1981 six of his records appeared on the U.K. charts, the highest being “Sideshow,” which climbed to number three in December 1976. Biggs cheerfully described himself as a “do-over man,” turning American material by Stevie Wonder, the Chi-Lites, and the Temptations into lightly reggae-inflected interpretations. His polished pop-reggae sound, built around high, double-tracked, and heavily echoed vocals, projected a more cosmopolitan tone than most Jamaican releases of the era; he steered clear of the political and Rasta subjects then dominant on the island and favored tailored stage attire over the familiar dreadlocked-rebel image. Observers have labeled him the Barry White of reggae—an epithet that hardly seems accurate—yet he remains a singular figure among reggae vocalists.