Jimmy Cliff Many Rivers To Cross

The original version of this film soundtrack is the single most influential reggae album in the genre's history, and the most listenable reggae record from beginning to end. That's always been a bit surprising, given that the film's director selected the tracks in a harried weekend of picking-and-choosing among songs that struck a personal resonance. It's doubly amazing that the songs fit the film so perfectly, and that Chris Blackwell was able to weave the tracks from various artists into such a perfect, cohesive album. This is the essential introduction to reggae music, and a collection whose spirit and musicality simply never ceases to amaze.

This 1972 film broke reggae into U.S. pop culture with Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers to Cross ; the Maytals' Pressure Drop , and the rest of its stellar soundtrack. 30 years later Island and Hip-O teamed to create this 2-CD edition, the definitive master of the original plus 18 cuts of crucial 1968-72 reggae: Guava Jelly Johnny Nash; Sweet Sensation Melodians, and many more of Cliff's classics. Great new liners, too! Jamaican filmmaker Perry Henzell made reggae an integral player in his gritty 1973 saga of a renegade Kingston singer who becomes a modern Robin Hood, casting one of the style's earliest stars, Jimmy Cliff, in the lead, and filling this soundtrack–here presented in a remastered version–with classics from Toots & the Maytals ("Pressure Drop," "Sweet and Dandy"), Desmond Dekker ("Shanty Town"), the Melodians ("Rivers of Babylon"), and the Slickers ("Johnny Too Bad"). Cliff himself gets pole position, however, getting in the first ("You Can Get It If You Really Want") and last ("The Harder They Come") words in this first-rate reggae primer, which also features Cliff's enduring "Many Rivers to Cross." –Sam Sutherland

The Pop Chronik series of compilations always offered an excellent choice and quality of recordings, but was released on the German market and on Vinyl only. Included are scans of the LP-sized booklet in English and German.

The Best is a 1993 compilation CD by reggae artist Jimmy Cliff. This was released by Versailles via Sony Music.

Jimmy Cliff is a 1969 album by Jimmy Cliff. It was retitled Wonderful World, Beautiful People after the track of that name was released as a single in the U.S. Richard Polak, who is credited with the sleeves of a number of Island Records artists in the early 1970s, is credited with photography.

It's one of the music industry's great ironies that today, outside of reggae circles, Jimmy Cliff is perhaps better known for his filmappearances than his music. Even after a string of hits, the singer never quite managed to break into the mainstream, although he seemed poised for international stardom during the late '60s/early '70s.