ALTON ELLIS

'Alton Ellis' (born 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica, is a musician best known as the innovator of rocksteady music.
In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.
Ellis started his career in 1959 as part of a duo with Eddie Perkins. Ellis and Perkins recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One before Perkins moved to the United State. Duke Reid took Ellis to his Treasure Isle label in 1962. By the mid-1960s, ska was moving on and the beat was slowing down and becoming associated with the rude boy subculture in Jamaican dancehalls. Recording with a backing trio, The Flames (consisting of his brother Leslie Ellis, David "Baby G" Gordon and a musician called Ronnie), Ellis scored big with the hits "Girl I've Got a Date", "Cry Tough" and "Rock Steady", which lent its name to the newer genre. As rocksteady dominated the Jamaican airwaves for the next two years, Ellis continued to score hits for Treasure Isle, working with artists such as Lloyd Charmers, Phyllis Dillon and The Heptones.