Delroy Washington

Delroy Washington (5 November 1952 – 27 March 2020) was a Jamaican-British reggae singer best known for his releases for Virgin Records in the late 1970s.

Biography

Born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Washington moved with his family to London in the early 1960s. His early experience in the music industry was as a session musician and tour manager. As a member of the band Rebel he recorded material for CBS Records which was not released.

In 1973 he released an independently produced single "Lonely Street" on the Count Shelly label. He recorded backing vocals for The Wailers on the Catch a Fire album, after befriending Bob Marley in the early 1970s, and he continued to provide backing vocals for Wailers albums until the late 1970s. Washington wrote songs with Marley and worked with him on making Marley's lyrics more suitable for European listeners.

He also provided backing vocals on the debut album from Aswad. He continued to record as a solo artist and was one of the first reggae artists signed by Virgin Records in the mid-1970s, his "Give All the Praise to Jah" single became a success on the British reggae charts. He released two albums on Virgin, I Sus in 1976 and Rasta in 1977....

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