RIP Alton Ellis

Damn.

FOR 25 weeks in 2004, I’m Still in Love by deejay Sean Paul and singer Sasha sat in the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts. The song peaked at number 14 and was another hit from Sean Paul’s Dutty Rock album, but it also gave the man who did the original version his first ‘taste’ of American success.

That man, singer Alton Ellis, died Friday at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, 10 months after he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. He was 70 years old.

Ellis was at the peak of his powers in 1967 when he cut I’m Still in Love for producer Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd at Studio One. It was one of many hits he recorded during that decade, which earned him the undisputed title of ‘Godfather of Rocksteady’.

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