George Faith

Earl George Turner came into the world on 6 July 1946 in Rae Town, Jamaica, West Indies, and left it on 16 April 2003. His gift for singing emerged while still a boy, when invitations to perform at parties and church services became routine. During his teenage years the soul approach of Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke shaped the direction of his own voice. He first entered the industry as a member of the Enchanters, yet his distinctive delivery soon prompted encouragement to step out alone. At sixteen he cut his debut single, “Little Miss Mmm,” for the little-known Mr. Abraham’s Saver productions; the record made no impression, and several years passed before his name resurfaced.

In the mid-seventies he laid down a handful of tracks for Lee “Scratch” Perry under the name George Earl, among them an initial reading of William Bell’s “To Be A Lover.” Adopting the stage name George Faith in 1977, Turner returned to Perry’s Black Ark Studios and re-recorded the song as an extended discomix. The resulting nine-and-a-half-minute piece, backed by the seamlessly joined “Rastaman Shuffle” that featured Dillinger, earned widespread international notice and led directly to an album of the same title. Additional sides from those sessions included treatments of “In The Midnight Hour” and “I’ve Got The Groove” together with the original composition “Opportunity.” Because Faith had committed “Opportunity” to both Perry and Militant Barry, the track appeared simultaneously on Island Records and on Trojan’s Horse subsidiary, creating enough confusion to stall further chart progress and leave a second Perry collaboration largely overlooked.

In 1978 the singer began working at Channel One Studios with Alvin “GG” Ranglin, releasing the results as Earl George; later that year he also recorded for Phil Pratt under the same credit. Drawing on studio experience, he attempted to launch an independent production career in 1980, yet the venture faltered and prompted a return to Ranglin. Under the George Faith name the producer issued Since I Met You Baby in 1982, but the album failed to restore earlier momentum.

Although nothing ever matched the impact of the Perry material, Faith sustained a steady presence on the Jamaican scene. He performed regularly under that name on the North Coast hotel circuit and, from 1990 onward, appeared frequently in Toronto. Highlights among those engagements included a tour alongside Gregory Isaacs and Philip Frazier plus well-received Rock Steady Nite presentations at the Skyline hotel. In 1992 he recorded the album Just The Blues with Doris Darlington—the mother of Coxsone Dodd—who had earlier produced as D. Darling at her son’s Brentford Road studio during the sixties. Faith also found a receptive audience in Brazil and continued to record intermittently until cancer claimed his life in 2003.