RIP Hopeton Lewis - September 4th 2014

09/08/2014 by Steve James

Hopeton Lewis, one of the great singers of the Rocksteady era passed away September 4th in New York at the age of sixty six.

His song Take It Easy was recorded in 1966 with Lyn Taitt & The Jets. The song is widely regarded as one of the first Rocksteady singles. He is also known for hits such as The Right Track done with Phyllis Dillion, Boom Shaka Lacka which won Jamaica’s Festival Song Contest in 1970.

While performing as lead singer for Byron Lee & The Dragonaires, the single ‘Grooving Out of Life’ was released. This was later covered by UK singer Lloyd Brown. and Take It Easy was also covered by Mr. Vegas.

In the early nineties he became a Christian and ceased recording secular songs. He chose rather to start recording gospel songs. This led to the release of several gospel albums including This is Gospel launched in 1996 and Reaching Out to Jesus in 2000.