THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

584-Johnny Nash-You Got Soul.

1968-Number 6 single.

Best Bit-At 0.06. You Got Soul. He was also blessed with more than his fair share of Reggae, and Pop.

John Lester Nash Jr. was born on August 19th, 1940, in Houston, Texas, United States, he died from natural causes at home in Houston, Texas, on October 6th, 2020.

Johnny Nash first began performing at the age of 13, in 1953, singing covers of R&B hits on the show ‘Matinee,’ which was a local variety programme on ‘KPRC-TV,’ shown regularly in Houston, Texas. He got his big break when signing with ‘ABC’ records in 1957, and scoring his first hit (Billboard Number 23) with his third single release, ‘A Very Special Love,’ in 1957. Nash sang in the style of Johnny Mathis, and was marketed as a competitor.

In 1964 Nash and his manager Danny Sims formed ‘JoDa Records,’ and found it to be more commercially viable to promote American artists abroad. In 1965 both Nash and Sims relocated to Jamaica where around 1966 they were introduced to Bob Marley & The Wailing Wailers, Nash signed them to a contract for J$50 a week (see also best songs 618 and 56.)

Johnny Nash was obviously heavily influenced by the music coming out of Jamaica, as all of his recordings from then onward were influenced by Reggae Music. In 1968 his own composition ‘Hold Me Tight’ would go a long way to popularising Reggae Music in America, and the UK, when reaching the top 10 in both countries.The follow up was this song ‘You Got Soul’ which he also wrote, and appeared on his seventh studio Album ‘Hold Me Tight’ In total Nash released 17 studio Albums between 1958-1986, before going into an unofficial retirement. In America he is best remembered for his 1972 Billboard Number 1 single ‘I Can See Clearly Now,’ while in the UK he achieved eight top 40 singles, with ‘Tears on My Pillow,’ reaching Number 1 in 1975.

‘You got somethin’ good as gold, somethin’ that’ll never grow old, yeah, you got soul.’