Bitty McLean

Britain's Bitty McLean countered the dominant gangster ragga sound dominating reggae and dancehall through a sequence of reggae-pop successes during the mid-1990s, relying on his smooth, classic vocal style. Born in 1972, he developed an early affinity for classic reggae and, during his teenage years, performed regularly in front of Birmingham's largest sound systems. After completing a sound and engineering course at a nearby college, he joined forces with U.K. roots reggae legends UB40, initially serving as an engineer before advancing to producer and occasional vocalist for the group. While handling those duties, he continued developing his personal material in private, a strategy that bore fruit in 1994 with three separate entries on the U.K. charts, among them renditions of the Shirelles' "Dedicated to the One I Love" and Fats Domino's "It Keeps Rainin'." In 2004 McLean issued the distinctive On Bond Street KGN. JA., an album on which he supplied his own melodies and lyrics atop vintage rocksteady instrumentals that Tommy McCook had originally laid down three decades prior at Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio.