Ernie Smith (born Glenroy Anthony Michael Archangelo Smith, c.1948, Kingston, Jamaica) is a reggae singer, with a deep baritone voice, who had his greatest success in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Smith was born in Kingston and raised in St. Ann. He initially (unsuccessfully) sought a career as a radio announcer, but then approached Federal Studios looking for work as a songwriter, ending up recording his songs himself. Recording initially in an easy listening style, Smith’s first chart success came in the late 1960s with “Bend Down”, which was followed by Jamaican number one hits in “Ride On Sammy,” “One Dream,” and “Pitta Patta”, all produced by Richard Khouri at Federal, the latter based on Lee “Scratch” Perry’s “Musical Transplant” rhythm, which was voted the best song of the year in Swing magazine. In 1972, he won the Yamaha Music Festival in Japan with “Life Is Just For Living”, a song originally written for a Red Stripe commercial. Read the rest of this entry »