Thanks to Jimmy Cliff, UB40, Ziggy Marley and lesser knowns like Inner Circle and San Diego’s Big Mountain, the fan base for reggae infused pop bands has increased over the past 40 years, kept alive and drawing in new listeners with hits ranging from a 1994 cover of Peter Frampton’s mid-70s classic “Baby, I Love Your Way” to the newly released “Don’t Make Me Wait,” a duet with Sting and Jamaican born reggae star Shaggy, which the pair performed at the recent Grammy Awards and which is charting on the Adult Alternative format, with some Top 40 playlists nibbling at the edges.
If names like Cliff and Marley excite you, than Shaggy is your man.
He hit the scene in 2000 with his album “Hot Shots,” which went 6x platinum in the U.S. alone; he was featured on “True Love” which won the 2004 Grammy for “Best Reggae Album” for Toots and the Maytals; in 2008, in Antwerp, he drew a crowd of 78,000 to his concert.
Shaggy and Sting’s album, “44/876” arrives in April.
Yes, his name is from the TV show “Scooby Doo.”