By the mid-1980s Jimmy Cliff had long since passed from the raw urgency of The Harder They Come into a journeyman’s groove on major-label albums — The Power and the Glory and then Cliff Hanger, recorded for Columbia in 1985 with a distinctive pop feel, the Jamaica Observer noted in a retrospective. It was not vintage Kong-era Cliff. But when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences convened the 28th Annual Grammy Awards on 25 February 1986, Cliff Hanger won Best Reggae Recording — only the second year the category existed.
The field
The Grammy.com listing records Cliff’s victory over Judy Mowatt’s Working Wonders, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers’ Play the Game Right, Burning Spear’s Resistance and the Blue Riddim Band’s Alive in Jamaica. Contemporary reporting in the Los Angeles Times listed “Cliff Hanger” under Reggae Recording. Grammy.com’s artist page counts it as the first of Cliff’s two wins — the second would not arrive for another twenty-seven years.
Between peaks
The Observer’s 2014 piece placed Cliff Hanger in the long middle act of Cliff’s career — after the film-driven stardom of the early 1970s and before the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and Rebirth resurgence. He would earn further Grammy nominations for Hanging Fire (1989), Breakout (1993) and Black Magic (2005) before his second trophy. The 1986 win confirmed that the academy regarded him as reggae royalty even when the charts looked elsewhere.
Why it matters
Cliff was already an Order of Merit holder-in-waiting and a global ambassador for Jamaican music; the Grammy made it official in the American industry’s ledger. It also proved that his Columbia period — polished, pop-leaning, far from Beverley’s — still counted as reggae in the judges’ ears.
Listen and dig deeper
- Play Cliff Hanger in the Listen library, and browse Jimmy Cliff.
- Previous: “Many Rivers to Cross” (1972). Next on the timeline: Order of Merit at King’s House (2003).
Sources: Grammy.com — Best Reggae Album 1986; Grammy.com — Jimmy Cliff awards history; Jamaica Observer — “Cliff Hanger did it for Jimmy” (Jan 10, 2014); Los Angeles Times — Grammy winners, Feb 26, 1986.
Editor's note: This entry is part of the JamaicansMusic online museum — a career timeline assembled from the archive. It is dated to the era it documents; every claim is drawn from the linked sources.