After growing up in the Pentecostal church, Maxi Priest began singing gospel with his parents and eight siblings. After converting to Rastafarianism and going by the name Maxi Priest, the undiscovered singer worked making speaker boxes for Saxon International sound system. By 1983 Priest’s talents were becoming known as he would regularly participate in live dancehall shows, and a year later co-produced Phillip Levi’s “Mi God Mi King” single, which topped the singles charts in Jamaica.
After signing with Virgin Records in 1985, the same year the label issued Priest’s debut album “You’re Safe”. Produced by Paul Robinson the album was recorded with the backing band Caution and spawned the hit UK “In the Springtime”. The singer’s subsequent album “Intentions”, released in 1986, moved away from a traditional reggae style and featured the hits “Strollin’ On” and “Crazy Love”. Only in 1988 however did Priest breakthrough into the mainstream with his eponymous full-length. The album reached No. 25 on the UK Albums chart aided by the No. 1 U.S. single and Cat Stevens cover “Wild World”.
By this point Priest had develop a strong following in the U.S. and the UK, which made his fourth studio album his most popular and success to date. “Bonafide”, released in 1990, debuted at No. 25 in the UK and No. 47 in the U.S., led by the U.S. No. 1 single “Close to You”. The album showcased the singer’s fusion style, introducing R&B and soul sensibilities to reggae rhythms and grooves. A hit compilation was released in 1991 entitled “Best of Me”, and the same year Priest once again reached the U.S. Top 10 with the Roberta Flack duet “Set the Night to Music”.
Despite earning favourable reviews, Priest’s fifth full-length “Fe Real” failed to perform as successfully as its predecessors, and after appearing in the film “Scam”, the singer took a hiatus from recording to launch his own label Dugout. Led by the duet with Shaggy “That Girl”, Priest’s sixth album “Man With the Fun” was released in 1996, and was his most fusion-based record to date. Featuring hip-hop and soul influences “CombiNation” was issued in 1999, followed by the Motown-orientated “2 the Max” in 2004, and “Refused” in 2007. After touring and recording alongside UB40, the compilation album “Maximum Collection”, preceded his 10th studio album “Easy to Love” in 2014.
Strangely enough, if I were to need to describe Maxi Priest to somebody not previously familiar with him, I’d be inclined to direct them to an old BBC comedy show from about ten years ago, World Shut Your Mouth. It was essentially a higher-budget - but strangely, lower-profile - international version of Trigger Happy TV, and one sketch had Dom Joly, dressed as a Scotsman, lifting up his kilt to reveal a doll of Priest, at which point he’d describe him as “the king of light reggae.” That’s precisely correct, too; over the course of a glittering career that’s now lasted more than three decades, the Lewisham, London native has made a name for himself as one of the premier purveyors of the genre. He had his biggest success in the late eighties and early nineties, with his Maxi, Bonafide and Fe Real albums; he’s always tended to lean more towards the more romantic side of the genre in terms of lyricism. His first album in seven years, Easy to Love, was released earlier this year; he’s already lined up shows with his band in destinations as far-flung as Melbourne and St. Albans for the rest of this year, with more planned for 2015.
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