Me & You (band)
Encyclopedia

History

Me and You come from a musical family, discovered by Dennis Brown
Dennis Brown
Dennis Emmanuel Brown was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lovers rock, a sub-genre of reggae...

, they began their career in 1974, he, Alton Ellis, Castro Brown and Granville Blake produced two albums, Natty Dread and Natty Dread Version which have recently been released for the first time. They then continued their career in 1979 signing with the DEB Music label run by Castro Brown and Dennis Brown. (DEB stands for Dennis Emmanuel Brown). Their debut "This Love" reached the top 10 of the reggae charts and was followed by "You Never Know What You Got (Til It’s Gone)" produced by Dennis Brown and Castro Brown and backed by the We The People Band, which topped the reggae chart and was also a crossover success reaching number 31 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 in July 1979. These two tracks were taken from the From Me To You album produced by Dennis Brown and Castro Brown and backed by the We The People Band. They toured as part of the DEB showcase and in 1980 were voted among the best newcomers in the Black Echoes
Black Echoes
Black Echoes is a Jamaican music show which has been broadcasting on radio in Dublin, Ireland. The show airs a range of music, including reggae, ska, rock-steady and dub. The show is presented by John Public, and produced by Miss Pat alongside Broadcast Assistant Denzil Lacey The show broadcasts on...

awards. They continued to enjoy reggae chart hits with singles such as "Let Me Go", "Casual Affair", "Who Told You So" and "Back Together Again" all taken from the album Let Me Go, and "Rock This Rub-A-Dub".

They were then mentored for several years by Alton Ellis
Alton Ellis
Alton Nehemiah Ellis, OD, was a Jamaican musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music and was often referred to as the "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.-Biography:Ellis was born in 1938 and...

 whom they met producing songs for their Natty Dread and Natty Dread Version albums and then again doing backing vocals for him at DEB Music. The soulful group has worked with legendary collaborators - musicians such as Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

's The Wailers Band, Lee Perry's The Upsetters
The Upsetters
The Upsetters was the name given to the house band for Jamaican reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. The name of the band comes from Perry's nickname of Upsetter, after his song "I Am The Upsetter", a musical dismissal of his former boss Coxsone Dodd....

, Soul Syndicate
Soul Syndicate
Soul Syndicate, originally called the Rhythm Raiders, were one of the top reggae session bands in Jamaica from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.-History:...

, Earl "Chinna" Smith's High Times Band, The Studio One Band and We The People. Producers include Coxsone Dodd
Coxsone Dodd
Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, CD was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond...

, Lee "Scratch" Perry, King Tubby
King Tubby
King Tubby was a Jamaican electronics and sound engineer, known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s and 1970s...

, King Jammy
King Jammy
Lloyd James , better known as Prince Jammy or King Jammy, is a dub mixer and record producer. He began his musical career as a dub master at King Tubby's recording studio...

, Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie is the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare who joined in the mid 1970s after having established themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians...

, Steely & Clevie
Steely & Clevie
Steely & Clevie, aka Wycliffe Johnson and Cleveland Browne, was a Jamaican dancehall reggae production duo. It worked with artists such as the Specials, Gregory Peck , Bounty Killer, Elephant Man and No Doubt....

, Bobby Digital and Dennis Bovell
Dennis Bovell
Dennis Bovell is a reggae guitarist, bass player and record producer. He was a member of the British reggae band Matumbi, and released dub-reggae records under his own name as well as the pseudonym 'Blackbeard'....

.

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually three members of the group two sisters and a brother. They were only marketed as a duo because DEB Music their then record company run by Dennis Brown and Castro Brown already had several other trios in the stable e.g. Carlton & The Shoes, Tamlins, 15, 16, 17 and Black Harmony.

Also, although acknowledged as purveyors of classic love songs, when they started in the mid-70s the first songs they sung were actually roots reggae reflecting the social consciousness in Jamaica at the time and comprising half of the two albums, Natty Dread and Natty Dread Version. Songs such as There Is A Land based on Abyssinians' Satta Massa Gana, Can't Stop Natty Dread and Dreadlocks In Moonlight written and produced by Lee Perry are backed by various bands such as The Revolutionaries, The Aggrovators, Sly & Robbie, The Upsetters and The Original Wailers band. Love songs include Hand It Over (with The Horsemouth Wallace Band) and Natural High (with The Wailers Band), Gee Baby (with Skin Flesh & Bones and I Wanna Know (with Chinna's High Times Band).

Their music encompasses and often fuses many genres within reggae (e.g. roots, dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

, ragga, ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

, dub and rock steady
Rock Steady
Rock Steady is the fifth album by American rock band No Doubt. It was released on December 11, 2001 on Interscope Records. The band began writing the album with initial recording sessions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, then traveled to London and Jamaica to work with various performers,...

), as well as R&B, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, garage
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...

and pop. With international hits in Jamaica, the Far East (where they are considered a soul group), US and Europe, they have developed a large and loyal fan base worldwide.

The group is still going strong and has never stopped recording. They have released 16 albums to date and more are due. Some of their singles are shown below.

They also produce other artists which include garage/house/dub fusion outfit AshbaCrew and reggae/dancehall band MegaMovement.

Discography


Albums

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