CANADIAN pop band Magic! certainly lived up to their name in 2014. Their song, Rude, was the year’s biggest hit with sales of over three million copies.
The Toronto quartet’s song about forbidden love also had a six-week run at number one on the Billboard pop chart and made them only the second Canadian act to score a number one reggae song on that list.
Snow was the first to accomplish the feat in 1993 with Informer.
Blue-eyed reggae artistes have had great success on the Billboard charts in the last 20 years. In 1994, Big Mountain out of Southern California scored with Baby I Love Your Way, a cover of British singer Peter Frampton’s massive 1975 hit.
In the 1980s, British bands The Police and UB40 hit the jackpot several times with reggae-flavoured songs. The former established themselves with songs like Everything Little Thing She Does is Magic and Message in a Bottle, but it was their 1983 multi-platinum album, Synchronicity, that reflected their Jamaican influences.
It included the songs Every Breath you Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger and King of Pain, which were international chart-toppers.
UB40 have never hidden their love for Jamaican music. Red Red Wine (a cover of an obscure Neil Diamond song) and Can’t Help Falling in Love were two of their massive sellers.
Not to be left out was Australian band Men at Work who topped the Billboard pop chart in 1981 with their reggae song, Down Under.
Magic!, which was formed in 2013, are scheduled to perform at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival which takes place at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium January 29-31.
They are part of a stellar cast that also includes Rhythm and Blues star Mariah Carey, former GAP Band singer Charlie Wilson, former Chicago front-man Peter Cetera, veteran R&B act the Pointer Sisters, American reggae band SOJA, Barbadian saxophonist Arturo Tappin, roots-reggae group Morgan Heritage, and singer Richie Stephens.
View the original article here
Creating Magic! at "Jazz"
