Franklin Delano Alexander "Junior" Braithwaite (4 April 1949 – 2 June 1999) was a

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 ...

musician from Kingston,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

and the youngest member of the vocal group,

The Wailing Wailers ''The Wailing Wailers'' is the 1965 eponymous debut studio album by the Wailers, later known as Bob Marley and the Wailers. Released on the Studio One label, the album is a compilation of various recordings made between 1964 and 1965 by Nevill ...

Early career

The Wailing Wailers was a vocal group

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements ...

Bunny Wailer Neville O'Riley Livingston (10 April 1947 – 2 March 2021), known professionally as Bunny Wailer, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and percussionist. He was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. ...

and

Peter Tosh Winston Hubert McIntosh, OM (19 October 1944 – 11 September 1987), professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band the Wailers (1963 ...

started in 1963, together with Braithwaite, when ska music had become popular in Jamaica. Soon after Beverly Kelso and

Cherry Smith Cherry Smith (born Ermine Ortense Bramwell, 22 August 1943 – 24 September 2008) was a backing vocalist for the original Wailers from 1963 to 1966. She was also called Cherry Green (her half-brother Carlton had that surname). Early beginning ...

joined the group as backing vocalists. Braithwaite was with The Wailers for eight months and sang lead on such songs as "Habits", "Straight and Narrow Way", "Don't Ever Leave Me", and "It Hurts To Be Alone". He had the best voice in The Wailers, according to Studio One's

Coxsone Dodd Clement Seymour "Coxsone" Dodd (26 January 1932 – 4 May 2004) was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond. He was nicknamed "Coxsone" at school due to his talent ...

, who discovered the band's talent. Bob Marley later commented: "Junior used to sing high. It's just nowadays that I'm beginning to realize that he sounded like one of the

Jackson Five The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most o ...

. When he left we had to look for a sound that Bunny, Peter and me could manage."

Later Years

Braithwaite left the band in 1964 and moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

with hopes of pursuing a medical career. He lived primarily in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and southern

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

for the next 20 years, and returned to Jamaica in 1984 to work with Bunny Wailer on a Wailers' reunion project. With the murder of

in September 1987, plans for world tours with a reunited Wailers never materialized.

Death

Braithwaite and fellow musician Chaka/ Lawrence Scott were shot dead in Scott's home in Kingston on 2 June 1999.

References

External links

Junior Braithwaite tribute site
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090829192756/http://geocities.com/wailingwailers/jbbio.htm Junior Braithwaite biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Braithwaite, Junior 1949 births 1999 deaths Jamaican reggae singers 20th-century Jamaican male singers Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica People murdered in Jamaica