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Johnny Nash, a singer-songwriter and performer of the million-dollar hymn I Can See Clearly Now, has died at the age of 80.
Nash, who had been in declining health, died of natural causes at his home in Houston, the city of his birth, said his son, Johnny Nash Jr.
Nash went from pop singer to reggae star and was in his early 30s in 1972 when I Can See Clearly Now topped the charts. He had already lived several lives in show business. In the mid-1950s, he was a teenager who covered Darn That Dream and other standards, his light tenor compared to the voice of Johnny Mathis. A decade later, he was the co-director of a record company, had become a rare American-born reggae singer and helped launch the career of his friend Bob Marley.
Nash, also an actor and producer, was one of the first artists to bring reggae to the American public. It reached its commercial peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it had hits with Hold Me Tight, You Got Soul, an early version of Marley’s Stir It Up, and I Can See Clearly Now, which follows being its flagship song.
Reportedly written by Nash while recovering from cataract surgery, I Can See Clearly Now was a story about getting through tough times, with a rising pop-reggae beat, the promise of a “bright, bright, sunny day. “and Nash’s gospel exclamation midway:” Look ahead, nothing but blue skies! “
Rock critic Robert Christgau would call the song, which Nash also produced, “2 minutes 48 seconds of pure inspiration.”
Born John Lester Nash Jnr, he grew up singing in church and at age 13 had his own show on Houston television. Within a few short years, he had a national following through his appearances on The Arthur Godfrey Show, his hit cover of Doris Days A Very Special Love, and a collaboration with fellow Paul Anka and George Hamilton IV on the wholesome The Teen Commandments (of Sees it). .
Mash also had roles in the films Take a Giant Step, in which he played a high school student who rebels against how the Civil War is taught, and Key Witness, a crime drama starring Dennis Hopper and Jeffrey Hunter.
In the 1960s, Nash convinced his manager and business partner Danny Sims, with whom he formed JAD Records, to sign Marley and the Wailers, who recorded Reggae On Broadway and dozens of other songs for JAD. Nash brought Marley to London in the early 1970s, when Nash was the biggest star internationally, and with Marley he gave an impromptu concert at a local boys’ school.
Nash’s versions of Stir It Up and Guava Jelly helped expose Marley’s writing to a general audience. The two also collaborated on the ballad, You Poured Sugar On Me, which appeared on the album I Can See Clearly Now.
Though overlooked by the Grammy judges, I Can See Clearly Now was covered by artists ranging from Ray Charles and Donny Osmond to Soul Asylum and Jimmy Cliff, whose version appeared in the 1993 film Cool Runnings. It also appeared everywhere from Thelma and Louise to a Windex commercial, and in recent years it was often mentioned on websites about cataract procedures.
“I feel like music is universal. Music is for the ears and not for age, “Nash told Cameron Crowe, who was then writing for Zoo World Magazine, in 1973.” There are some people who say they hate music. I’ve come across some, but I’m not sure I believe them. “
I Can See Clearly Now’s fame outlasted Nash’s. He rarely made the charts in the years that followed, even when he released albums like Tears On My Pillow and Celebrate Life, and by the 1990s he had essentially exited the music business. Her last album, Here Again, came out in 1986, though in recent years she was reportedly digitizing her old work, part of which was lost in a fire at Universal Studios in Los Angeles in 2008.
Nash was married three times and had two children. He had loved riding horses since childhood and as an adult he lived with his family on a ranch in Houston, where for years he also conducted rodeo shows at the Johnny Nash Indoor Arena.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his daughter, Monica, and his wife, Carli Nash.
