Singer-songwriter Ernie Smith is in critical condition in a Florida hospital, his wife Claudette Bailey Smith tells Observer Online. She said he was admitted there on April 7 and is in the Intensive Care Unit after undergoing a “surgical procedure”.

Bailey Smith disclosed that her husband was taken to hospital for, “A situation that had to be corrected”. Smith underwent surgery two days after being admitted, and while that procedure was successful, he remains “heavily sedated” and placed on a ventilator.

Smith, who turns 81 in May, is known for easy-listening reggae classics such as Pitta Patta, Duppy Gunman and Life is Just For Living. Those songs were recorded during the 1970s at Federal Records where he was the main artiste.

He had other hits such as I For Jesus and Sunday Coming Down, before migrating to Canada in the late 1970s. Smith returned to Jamaica in the 1990s and became a popular attraction on the live show scene.

In late 2025, he and fellow singer Ed Robinson recorded a version of Pitta Patta which entered the South Florida reggae chart.

Smith was born in Kingston but raised in St Ann. His music career took off in the late 1960s with Ride on Sammy, which was followed by Bend Down.

A major breakthrough came for Smith in 1972 when Life is Just For Living won the Yamaha Music Festival in Japan. That success paved the way for other artistes at Federal Records such as Ken Lazarus and Pluto Shervington.

Howard Campbell