Observer Online presents the first story in ‘Jimmy Cliff: Stories Of A Bongo Man’, in tribute to the reggae legend who died on November 24 at age 81. This seven-part series looks at different aspects of the singer-songwriter’s life.

It was an Elvis Presley-type moment in 1962 when Robert Nesta Marley walked into Beverley’s Records, the downtown Kingston studio of Leslie Kong. He wanted to see the producer about possibly cutting some songs he had written.

Elvis, an 18 year-old truck driver, had similar dreams nine years earlier when he went to see Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Marley was a 17 year-old welder but the person who auditioned him was not Kong, but James “Jimmy Cliff” Chambers.

Cliff was 18 years-old at the time and had his first hit song in 1962 with Hurricane Hattie, one of the singles that defined the ska craze sweeping Jamaica. In a December 2021 interview with the Jamaica Observer, Cliff said he was playing the piano when Marley walked into the studio.

“I hear a voice sey, ‘dat sound good yuh nuh’. And when I look ’round it was a little youth with him chest push out,” he recalled.

That day, Marley pitched five songs to Cliff who was part of Kong’s thriving camp which also included Derrick Morgan, Toots and The Maytals and Desmond Dekker.

After rehearsing the ska songs Marley wrote, Cliff said he suggested Kong record three of them — Judge Not, One Cup of Coffee and Terror. Judge Not, released in late 1962, became Marley’s first released single.
Cliff says Kong was not impressed with Marley.

“Him sey, ‘Cho! Him cyaan sing, mon’. But dat was the start of Bob Marley,” the singer reflected. He did not share his boss’ views.

“Bob had a great sense of rhythm and he was a poet,” Cliff stated.

The Marleys hailed Cliff’s legacy on their official social media pages.

“Our condolences to the family and loved ones of brother @jimmycliff as he makes his transition. Jimmy was an instrumental figure in Bob’s coming up, having brought him to producer Leslie Kong in 1962 to record his very first singles, Judge Not and One Cup Of Coffee,” read their Instagram post.

Marley did not stay long with Beverley’s Records which produced some of Cliff’s biggest hits such as You Can Get it if You Really Want, Wonderful World, Beautiful People and The Harder They Come.

Within a year, he formed The Wailers, a harmony group that included Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, later known as Bunny Wailer. They scored with several ska songs for producer Clement Dodd such as Simmer Down and One Love.

The Wailers recorded a number of early reggae songs for Kong in the late 1960s but their relationship with him ended abruptly over creative differences. Kong died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 37.

Bob Marley died on May 11 1981 in Miami from cancer at age 36.