Bruce Ruffin (born 17 February 1952)
[Moskowitz, David V. (2006) ''Caribbean Popular Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall'', Greenwood Press, , p.260] is a Jamaican
rocksteady and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
artist.
Biography
Ruffin got his start singing with
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (known as Byron Lee's Dragonaires after Lee's death and now The Dragonaires) are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world. Byron ...
briefly, before in 1967 joining
the Techniques, one of the more successful rocksteady
vocal group
A vocal group is a performing ensemble of vocalists who sing and harmonize together. The first well-known vocals groups emerged in the 19th century, and the style had reached widespread popularity by the 1940s.
Types
Vocal groups can come in s ...
s of the late 1960s.
There he sang alongside
Pat Kelly,
Pat Kelly page at Reggae-Reviews.com
/ref> Winston Riley and Junior Menns. He was one of several talented singers to drift through the Techniques' ranks, but his stay with the group was highlighted by several rocksteady hits that he wrote, the most notable of which was "Love Is Not a Gamble".
Restless, Ruffin left the Techniques a year later, returning in 1969 as a solo artist with the upbeat reggae song, "Long About Now".
His greatest success came in the 1970s as a reggae-pop solo artist and writer. He continued to record with a number of record producers (Leslie Kong
Leslie Kong (20 December 1933 – 9 August 1971) was an influential Chinese-Jamaican reggae producer.
Career
Leslie and his two older brothers Cecil and Lloyd ran a restaurant, ice cream parlour and record shop called Beverley's in Orange Stre ...
, Herman Chin Loy
Herman Chin Loy ( Trelawny, 11 July 1948''Aquarius Rock. The Hip Reggae World of Herman Chin-Loy'' booklet and liner notes) is a Jamaican record producer, best known for his productions from the late 1960s and early 1970s of artists such as Augus ...
, Lloyd Charmers
Lloyd Charmers (born Lloyd Tyrell, 1938 – 27 December 2012, also known as Lloyd Chalmers, Lloyd Terell, or Lloyd Terrell)Ruddock, George (2012), '' Jamaica Gleaner'', 29 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012 was a Jamaican ska and reggae ...
) and had some success with cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s, including Paul Simon's "Cecilia". However, it was a José Feliciano
José Montserrate Feliciano García (born September 10, 1945) () is a Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer. He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors' "Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song " F ...
tune, "Rain", that would give his solo career momentum, recorded on Trojan Records
Trojan Records is a British record label founded in 1968. It specialises in ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub music. The label currently operates under the Sanctuary Records Group. The name ''Trojan'' comes from the Croydon-built Trojan truck ...
, it was a UK number 19 hit in 1971 – the B-side of which was the karaoke
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...
favourite "Geronimo".
In 1972 he secured a crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
hit with "Mad About You", which featured odd background vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...
and strings arrangement. It was released on the Rhino record label (not to be confused with Rhino Records
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
), and gave him his biggest selling hit, reaching number 6 in Australia and 9 in the UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
- it ultimately set the direction for his career. For the rest of the decade, Ruffin continued to release polished reggae-pop that had a strong audience in the UK and Europe. By the 1980s, Ruffin was concentrating on writing and publishing. He eventually moved away from music to study law, becoming a legal consultant to other reggae artists.
Ruffin is now the CEO of the BRM Music
British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...
companies.
References
External links
* Bruce Ruffin biographyat Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruffin, Bruce
1952 births
Living people
People from Saint Catherine Parish
Jamaican reggae musicians
Jamaican male singers
Jamaican songwriters
Trojan Records artists