Hopeton Lewis
| Hopeton Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 October 1947 |
| Origin | Kingston, Jamaica |
| Died | 4 September 2014 (aged 66) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Reggae |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1960s-2014 |
| Website | www |
Hopeton Lewis (3 October 1947 – 4 September 2014) was a Jamaican singer.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Lewis sang in church from an early age and started performing as a youth, forming a singing group called the Regals. By the mid-1960s, he began recording and had one of the earliest rocksteady hits with "Take It Easy" in late 1966. The track was recorded with Lynn Taitt and the Jets and is regarded as one of the first rocksteady singles. He had several more Jamaican hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the first 'herb' song ever recorded in Jamaica, "Cool Collie". He worked for Duke Reid as an arranger and backing vocalist, and won the Festival Song Contest in 1970 with "Boom Shaka Lacka". He began working as a singer with Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and in 1971 had a hit with "Grooving Out On Life".
Lewis continued to release records, but his success after the early 1970s was limited. Lewis released This Is Gospel in 1996 on his own label, Bay City Music, founded in the 1980s. Much of his later work was in the gospel genre, including Reaching Out to Jesus (2000).
He lived the later period of his life in Brooklyn, New York, where he presented a show on Grace Deliverance Radio.
Lewis died on 4 September 2014 at his home in Brooklyn, aged 66, after suffering kidney failure.
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Wikipedia