Nash began as a pop singer in the 1950s. He also enjoyed success as an actor early in his career appearing in the screen version of playwright Louis S. Peterson's Take a Giant Step. Nash won a Silver Sail Award for his performance from the Locarno International Film Festival.Johnny Nash (born John Lester Nash, Jr., August 19, 1940, Houston, Texas) is an African-American pop singer-songwriter, best known for his unexpected 1972 comeback hit, "I Can See Clearly Now".
He was also the first non-Jamaican to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica. Besides "I Can See Clearly Now," Nash recorded several hits in Jamaica, where he travelled in early 1968, as his girlfriend had family links with local TV and radio host and novel writer Neville Willoughby. Nash planned to try breaking the local rocksteady sound in the United States. Willoughby introduced him to a local struggling vocal group, The Wailers. Members Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh introduced him to the local scene. Nash signed all three to an exclusive publishing and recording contract with his JAD label and financed some of their recordings, some with Byron Lee's Dragonaires and some with other local musicians such as Jackie Jackson and Lynn Taitt. None of the Marley and Tosh songs he produced were successful. Only two singles were released at the time: "Bend Down Low" (JAD 1968) and "Reggae on Broadway" (Columbia, 1972), which was recorded in London in 1972 on the same sessions that produced "I Can See Clearly Now." The I Can See Clearly Now album includes four original Marley compositions published by JAD: "Guava Jelly", "Comma Comma", "You Poured Sugar On Me" and the follow-up hit "Stir It Up". "There Are More Questions Than Answers" was a third hit single taken from the album. Nash was also active as a composer in the Swedish romance Vill så gärna tro (1971) in which he portrayed Robert. The film soundtrack, partly instrumental reggae with strings, was co-composed by Bob Marley and arranged by Fred Jordan.
Hit singles
* "Hold Me Tight" (1968) # 5 UK # 5 U.S.
* "You Got Soul" (1969) # 6 UK
* "Cupid" (1969) # 6 UK # 39 U.S.
* "Stir It Up" (1972) # 13 UK #12 U.S.
* "I Can See Clearly Now" (1972) # 5 UK # 1 U.S.
* "There Are More Questions Than Answers" (1972) # 9 UK
* "Tears On My Pillow " (1975) # 1 UK
* "Let's Be Friends" (1975) # 42 UK
* "(What A) Wonderful World" (1976) # 25 UK
* "Rock Me Baby" (1985) # 47 UK
* "I Can See Clearly Now" (re-mix) (1989) # 54 UK
Hit albums
* 1972: I Can See Clearly Now # 39 UK
* 1973: My Merry-Go-Round US
* 1977: Johnny Nash Collection # 18 UK
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