Today the Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues its daily review of stories that made an impact in 2019.

EDWARD Seaga had a colourful and distinguished political life. He was Jamaica’s fifth prime minister from 1980 to 1989 and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He spent 43 years as Member of Parliament for West Kingston.

His retirement from political life marked the end of Jamaica’s founding generation in active politics, as he was the last-serving politician to have entered public life before Independence in 1962. He was appointed to the Legislative Council (now the Senate) in 1959.

But he also left an indelible imprint on Jamaica’s music and culture.

The affable statesman, who died from cancer on May 28 in the University of Miami Hospital, Florida, at age 89, produced Higgs and Wilson’s 1960 hit song, Oh Manny Oh.

“It [ Oh Manny Oh] was one of the early Jamaican music, after we moved away from the American R&B influences. During that period, we saw the rise of the sound system operators like Coxson [Clement Dodd] and Duke Reid, and a young producer named Edward Seaga,” musicologist Kingsley Goodison told the Jamaica Observer.

“[Joe] Higgs and [Roy] Wilson were the top duo. They were from Trench Town and many-time champions at Vere Johns Opportunity Hour talent show held at the Ambassador Theatre in Kingston. Oh Manny Oh was number one on the charts for weeks. He, Seaga, paid his dues as a producer. You can’t take that away from him,” Goodison continued.

Oh Manny Oh sold more than 50,000 copies. Higgs died from cancer in 1999. Wilson died in May 2012.

The Boston-born Seaga, according to Goodison, also did a lot for culture.

“He started a cultural centre at Chocomo Lawn on Wellington Street in Denham Town in Kingston in the early ’60s. A lot of dances used to be held there,” said Goodison, who honoured Seaga in 2005 at his ‘Tribute To The Greats’ show.

Seaga once owned the West Indies Records Limited (WIRL) studio, which had the franchise for Columbia Records in Jamaica. It was acquired by Byron Lee and renamed Dynamic Sounds in 1961.

He established most of the institutions that helped develop arts, crafts, and national heritage in Jamaica, including the Jamaica Festival competition in 1963.

In 2002, the Government of Jamaica awarded Seaga its Order of the Nation, the country’s second-highest honour.

He is survived by widow Carla, children Christopher, Andrew, Anabella and Gabrielle Seaga.