Clancy Eccles was a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, songwriter, arranger, promoter, record producer and talent scout.
19 Facts About Clancy Eccles
1.
2.
Son of a tailor and builder, Eccles spent his childhood in the countryside of the parish of Saint Mary.
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Clancy Eccles had an itinerant childhood due to his father's need to travel Jamaica seeking work.
4.
Clancy Eccles used to regularly attend church, and he became influenced by spiritual singing; In his words: "One of my uncles was a spiritual revivalist, who always did this heavy type of spiritual singing, and I got to love that".
5.
Clancy Eccles's professional singing career began as a teenager, working the north-coast hotel circuit in the mid-1950s.
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Clancy Eccles moved to Kingston in 1959, where he started his recording career.
7.
Clancy Eccles first recorded for Coxsone Dodd, who had organised a talent show in which Eccles took part.
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Clancy Eccles had a Jamaican hit in 1961 with the early ska song "Freedom", which was recorded in 1959, and was featured on Dodd's sound system for two years before it was released.
9.
Clancy Eccles organised concerts for The Clarendonians in 1963, and for The Wailers in 1964 and 1965.
10.
Clancy Eccles launched other talent search contests, with Battle of the Stars, Clancy Eccles Revue, Independent Revue and Reggae Soul Revue, from which emerged stars such as Barrington Levy and Culture.
11.
Clancy Eccles couldn't make a living from his music, so he quit in 1965 to work as a tailor in Annotto Bay.
12.
Clancy Eccles went back to music in 1967, producing his own recordings as well as those of other artists.
13.
Clancy Eccles scored a hit with Eric 'Monty' Morris' reggae song "Say What You're Saying", and with his own song "Feel The Rhythm", one of several records that were instrumental in the shift from rocksteady to reggae.
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Clancy Eccles' first hit, "What Will Your Mama Say" which was released by the recently created United Kingdom label, Pama Records.
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Clancy Eccles recorded many organ-led instrumentals with his session band The Dynamites, featuring Jackie Jackson, Hux Brown, Paul Douglas, Winston Wright, Gladstone Anderson, Winston Grennan, Joe Isaacs, and Hugh Malcolm, with Johnny Moore and Bobby Ellis both contributing trumpet in different sessions.
16.
In 1970, Clancy Eccles helped pave the way to the dub music genre by releasing an instrumental version of "Herbman Shuffle" called "Phantom", with a mix focusing on the bass line.
17.
Clancy Eccles launched different record labels for his works: Clansone, New Beat and Clandisc.
18.
Clancy Eccles recorded artists such as Alton Ellis, Joe Higgs, the Trinidian Lord Creator, Larry Marshall, Hemsley Morris, Earl Lawrence, The Beltones, Glen Ricks, Cynthia Richards, Buster Brown and Beres Hammond.
19.
Clancy Eccles died on 30 June 2005, in Spanish Town Hospital from complications of a heart attack.