Delroy Easton "Bitty" McLean (born 8 August 1972) is a British

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 ...

lovers rock Lovers' rock is a style of reggae music noted for its romantic sound and content. While love songs had been an important part of reggae since the late 1960s, the style was given a greater focus and a name in London in the mid-1970s.Larkin, Col ...

and

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...

singer. He is best known for his three UK Top 10

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

in 1993 and 1994, including his debut offering " It Keeps Rainin' (Tears from My Eyes)".

Career

The youngest of six children to Easton and Leonie (née Reynolds), Delroy McLean was nicknamed "Bitty" due to his small stature.France.unitedreggae.com
As a teenager he performed with local

sound systems In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

, and after studying

sound engineering An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

at college, he was employed by

UB40 UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the ...

as an engineer and producer, and occasionally also sang with the band. He was most popular around the mid-1990s 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 of songs including

The Shirelles The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFadd ...

' "

Dedicated to the One I Love "Dedicated To The One I Love" is a song written by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass that was a hit for the "5" Royales, the Shirelles, the Mamas & the Papas and Bitty McLean. Pauling was the guitarist of the "5" Royales, the group that recorded ...

" ( UK No. 6) and

Fats Domino Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...

's " It Keeps Rainin' (Tears from My Eyes)" (1993), which was his biggest UK hit, peaking at No. 2. McLean's song "It Keeps Rainin' (Tears from My Eyes)" topped the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and the

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in 1993. McLean also played on three UK arena

tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

supporting UB40,

Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish soft rock band formed in 1982. They scored a number of hits in the UK charts and around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. They are best known for their 1994 cover of The Troggs' 1960s hit "Love Is All Around", which w ...

and

Simply Red Simply Red are a British soul and pop band formed in Manchester in 1985. The lead vocalist of the band is singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall, who, by the time the band initially disbanded in 2010, was the only original member left. Since the ...

respectively. In 2004, he released the album ''On Bond Street KGN. JA.'', which featured his vocals recorded over vintage

Tommy McCook Tommy McCook (3 March 1927 – 5 May 1998) was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed The Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee or with The Revolutionaries at Channel One S ...

and

Duke Reid Arthur "Duke" Reid CD (21 July 1915 – 1 January 1975) was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner. He ran one of the most popular sound systems of the 1950s called Reid's Sound System, whilst Duke himself was known as The Troja ...

-produced,

Treasure Isle Arthur "Duke" Reid CD (21 July 1915 – 1 January 1975) was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner. He ran one of the most popular sound systems of the 1950s called Reid's Sound System, whilst Duke himself was known as The Troja ...

rhythms from the

rocksteady Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...

era, most with new lyrics of his own, but also using

David Ruffin David Eli Ruffin (born Davis Eli Ruffin;Ribowsky, p. 88 January 18, 1941 – June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer and musician most famous for his work as one of the lead singers of the Temptations (1964–68) during the group's "Clas ...

's "Walk Away from Love" and

David Gates David Ashworth Gates (December 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was a American singer-songwriter, guitarist, musician and producer, frontman and co-lead singer (with Jimmy Griffin) of the group Bread, which reached the top of the musical charts i ...

' "

Make It with You "Make It with You" is a song written by David Gates and originally recorded by American pop- rock group Bread, of which Gates was a member. Gates and drummer Mike Botts are the only members of the group to appear on the recording which was a No ...

". He recorded a studio album in 2007, entitled ''Movin' On'', with

Sly and Robbie Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separa ...

at their One Pop studios in Kingston, Jamaica. ''Movin' On'' was released on the Taxi / Silent River / TABOU1 label in Europe and the US, while JVC released it in Japan. McLean and Sly & Robbie toured Japan, Europe and Morocco in 2008 and 2009. In 2013, McLean released a new album, ''The Taxi Sessions'', with Sly & Robbie, and a live DVD recorded with Sly & Robbie and the Taxi Gang, during their concert in Paris in May 2009. Also in 2013, McLean joined The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra on vocals, for a cover of

Desmond Dekker Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earlie ...

's "Fu Man Chu" (a single release for the band). He also joined them on stage for several shows, appeared in the official video that accompanied the single and, in May 2013, joined them on '' Later... with Jools Holland'' to perform the track. In 2017, he and producer Guillaume Bougard traveled to Philadelphia to deliver lectures at the Westphal School of Music at Drexel University, consistently ranked as one of the top music programs in the US, to present Jamaican music production techniques, as well as to start working on a new soul music project in collaboration with New York based publishing powerhouse Reservoir. In 2018, he released the album ''Love Restart''. The LP features 6 extended mixes of previously unreleased tracks, while the CD edition features the same 6 tracks in their regular length plus 5 extra songs. The digital edition features the 6 extended mixes from the LP and the 5 other tracks from the CD. Produced with Sly & Robbie and Guillaume Bougard, and mastered at Abbey Road, ''Love Restart'' came out August 21, 2018 on TABOU1's bandcamp store and was distributed worldwide from September 2018. McLean toured Europe with Sly & Robbie in August 2018 to promote the new album. Following Robbie Shakespeare's passing in December 2021, Bitty McLean put the soul project on the back burner and recorded an album over riddims produced by Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare as a tribute to Robbie. This 11 track album is to be released in the second half of 2022.

Personal life

He is uncle to footballer Aaron McLean and singer Anthony, under the artist name of "

McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...

Discography

Albums

*'' Just to Let You Know...'' (1994) – UK No. 19 *''Natural High'' (1995) – UK No. 81 *''Soul to Soul'' (2003) *''On Bond Street KGN. JA.'' (2005) *''Made in Jamaica'' (2007) *''Movin On'' (2009) *''The Taxi Sessions'' (2013) *''Love Restart'' (2018)

Singles

*" It Keeps Rainin' (Tears from My Eyes)" (1993) – UK No. 2, AUS No. 83 *"Pass It On" (1993) – UK No. 35 *"Here I Stand" (1994) – UK No. 10 *"

" (1994) – UK No. 6 *"What Goes Around" (1994) – UK No. 36 *"Over the River" (1995) – UK No. 27 *"

We've Only Just Begun "We've Only Just Begun" is a single by the Carpenters, written by Roger Nichols (music) and Paul Williams (lyrics). It was ranked at No. 414 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." Song information The so ...

" (1995) – UK No. 23 *"Nothing Can Change This Love" (1995) – UK No. 55 *"Natural High" (1996) – UK No. 63 *"She's Alright" (1996) – UK No. 53 *"

Walk Away from Love "Walk Away from Love" is a song recorded by American singer David Ruffin in 1975. The million-selling single, produced by Van McCoy and written by Charles Kipps, was number one on the US R&B Singles Chart for one week in early 1976, and crossed ...

" (2004) *"The Real Thing" (2005) *"Let Them Talk" (2006) *"Got to Let Go" (2008)

References