JOHN HOLT
John Holt stands as one of the most prolific and commercially successful interpreters of non-Jamaican material in reggae history. For Holt, reinterpretation was not an occasional experiment but a core artistic strategy. During the late 1960s and 1970s, he recorded reggae versions of a wide range of pop, soul, and country songs. Albums such as 1000 Volts Of Holt feature reggae interpretations of songs originally associated with Elvis Presley, Ben E. King, The Beatles, Jim Reeves, and Anne Murray. These often stood alongside Holt’s original compositions without distinction. In 1971, he recorded a reggae version of James Carr’s A Man Needs A Woman for producer Bunny Lee. Backed with It’s A Jam In The Street, the single was released in both Jamaica and the UK on Lee’s Jackpot label.