KINGSTON, Jamaica — Like most of his rocksteady era contemporaries, John Holt loved recording studios. He loved to record music even more.

Holt, who died Monday morning in London at age 69, cut his first song (Forever I’ll Stay) in 1963 for producer Leslie Kong. Whether with The Paragons or as a solo act, Holt went on to assemble one of the largest catalogues in reggae.

So massive a cache it is that his set list was different depending on where he performed.

His manager, Copeland Forbes, says in the United Kingdom where Holt had a large base, fans did not want to hear his ‘regular’ hit songs.

“The songs he did in the UK he never did in Jamaica, the US or the Caribbean. He mostly did songs from 1000 Volts of Holt,” Forbes told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Produced by Englishman Tony Ashfield, 1000 Volts of Holt was released in 1974 by Trojan Records. It contained covers of Diana Ross’ Touch me in The Morning, Stoned out of my Mind by the Chi Lites and Mr Bojangles, the Sammy Davis Jnr signature.

Holt last performed in the UK in August in London.

While he was a prolific performer in Britain, Forbes says Holt never toured Europe until 2010 when he played the Garance and Reggae Superjam festivals in France and Germany, respectively.

“He was nervous because he had never been to (that area of) Europe before and didn’t know which songs to sing. But when him do ‘Police in Helicopter’, the place wreck,” Forbes recalled.

A ganja anthem, Police in Helicopter is the best known of the hardcore dancehall songs Holt recorded with the Roots Radics band for producer Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes at Channel One studio in the early 1980s.

John Holt’s tireless recording and influence on lovers’ rock reggae did not go un-noticed. He was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government in 2004; in June, he was also recognised by promoters of the Groovin’ in the Park show in Queens, New York.

Howard Campbell