Horatious Adolphus "Pat" Kelly (6 August 1944 – 16 July 2019)[1] was a prolific, influential Jamaican rocksteady and reggae singer and innovative, groundbreaking sound engineer working with King Tubby, Bunny Lee and Scientist (musician), whose career began in the mid-1960s.
The shift from ska to rocksteady suited The Techniques, with a string of hits in 1967 and 1968 notably "You Don't Care" and "Queen Majesty", tunes which were versioned by Big Youth, Tony Tuff, Duke Reid, Tommy McCook, Sonia Pottinger's High Note label with The Revolutionaries, Ronnie Davis, The Itals, Cornell Campbell and many more [2] Kelly was born in Kingston in 1944.
[2] Kelly's falsetto voice, strongly influenced by the American soul singer Sam Cooke, in combination with Winston Riley and Bruce Ruffin, maintained the success that The Techniques had enjoyed with Smith.
In the same year, Kelly also recorded a Bunny Lee produced version of the John D. Loudermilk composition, Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, a tune already popularised in Jamaica by the Bettye Swann and Johnny Nash interpretations.
[2] An album followed, the Lee "Scratch" Perry-engineered Pat Kelley Sings (sic), and Kelly was offered a £25,000 contract by Apple Records, which he was unable to accept due to existing contractual commitments.
[2][7] In 1979, Kelly worked with Sly and Robbie, Ossie Hibbert and Ranking Trevor on the Rockers vocal and dub Discomix, "It's a Good Day", which was also versioned by King Tubby.