Big Mountain

Much like UB40, the American reggae outfit Big Mountain steered a polished take on Jamaican sounds into the U.S. mainstream when their rendering of Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way" climbed into the Top Ten during the first months of 1994. Credit is due, however, for the fact that the band's three albums blend authentic reggae foundations with only a handful of R&B-flavored covers, while the roster has featured two Jamaican players of strong pedigree: rhythm guitarist Tony Chin and drummer Santa Davis, each a veteran of Peter Tosh's band as well as the Soul Syndicate.

Big Mountain first assembled in San Diego under the name Rainbow Warriors. After repeated shifts in personnel and two successive renamings—to Shiloh and then to Big Mountain—the core stabilized around vocalist and guitarist Quino alongside rhythm guitarist Jerome Cruz, drummers Gregory Blakney and Lance Rhodes, keyboardist Manfred Reinke, and bassist Lynn Copeland. This configuration issued Wake Up on the Quality label in 1992, sending the track "Touch My Light" onto the charts early the next year. The single peaked at number 51 stateside, yet within twelve months Big Mountain began cycling through additional guitarists until Tony Chin stepped in. Joining Quino and Copeland were Santa Davis, percussionist James McWhinney, and keyboard players Billy Stoll and Michael Hyde. While tracking their follow-up album, film producer Ron Fair recruited the group to cut a version of "Baby, I Love Your Way" for the soundtrack of Reality Bites. Featured both on that collection and on the band's 1994 release Unity, the single rose to number six in the U.S. and registered as a global success.

Even as Big Mountain scored on the pop listings, the reggae audience continued to support them; the group topped the bill at two straight Reggae Sunsplash events in Jamaica amid extensive international routing that spanned Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Indonesia. Their third album, Resistance, appeared in 1995, with Free Up arriving two years afterward.