Alton Ellis

Born Alton Nehemiah Ellis in Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica, Ellis was raised within a musical family and learned to play the piano at a young age.[6] He attended Ebeneezer and Boys' Town schools, where he excelled in both music and sport.[7] While at Boys' Town Ellis performed as a dancer (in a duo) in the first show that a school director called Mr Bailey had organized for Vere Johns who had been invited down to talent scout.[8] He would later compete on Vere Johns' Opportunity Hour.[9] After winning some competitions, he switched to singing, starting his career in 1959 as part of the duo Alton & Eddy with Eddy Parkins.[10]

Ellis and Parkins recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, initially in the R&B style, having a hit in 1960 with "Muriel" (from Dodd's first commercially-oriented recording session at Federal studios),[11] a song Ellis had written while working as a labourer on a building site.[7] This initial success was followed by the release of "My Heaven", which like "Muriel" was a slow R&B ballad with the instrumental triplets and vocal harmonizing common to the ballads of that period. Further releases in the R&B style followed: "Lullabye Angel", "I Know It All", "I'm Never Gonna Cry" and "Yours".[7] The duo also recorded R&B tracks for Vincent Chin's Randy's label including "Let Me Dream". The duo split after Parkins won a major talent contest and moved to the United States.[10] Ellis remained in Kingston, working as a printer and after losing his job, he restarted his music career, initially forming a new duo with John Holt.[7] When Holt joined The Paragons, Ellis formed a new group, The Flames. Ellis continued to work for Dodd and also recorded for his arch-rival, Duke Reid on his Treasure Isle label.[10] At the start of his career Ellis recorded with his younger sister Hortense; early tracks with Hortense like "Don't Gamble With Love" (1965) were still in the R&B style.