Boris wakes up world
The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues its month-long feature titled ‘Cover Me Good’. It will look at songs covered by Jamaican artistes which became hits.
IN 1969, singer/bass player Boris Gardiner got his first taste of success as an artiste with the ballad So Nice To Be With You. It is a cover of American pop band The Monkees’s It’s
Nice To Be With You.
“It was a flip side of a Monkees song. Federal [Records] asked me if I think I could do this song. When I listened to it, it sounded crummy to me, but when I start singing it, it felt good as I put in my thing. So I said, ‘Yeah man, I can record it’... And it was my first number one in Jamaica,” Gardiner told the Jamaica Observer.
Gardiner — who played bass on the song — said his band, The Boris Gardiner Happening, accompanied him on the project.
“Keith Sterling was on keyboard, Paul Douglas on drums, and Dr Carol Thompson sang harmonies. I used a string quartet and I used horns,” he said. “It was a fully arranged tune. I wrote all the parts — strings and horns. I put the whole arrangement together and it turned out really good for a first tune.”
Gardiner’s star would shine globally 17 years later with his take on American country singer Mac Davis’s I Want To Wake Up With You. Written by Nashville songwriter Ben Peters, Davis’s version was released in March 1980.
Gardiner — whose bass lines can be heard on Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves, Beat Down Babylon (Junior Byles) and the album Heart of The Congos by The Congos — remembers the event that led to his covering the Peters/ Davis song 35 years ago.
“[Producer] Willie Lindo heard it [the song] on a Mac Davis album and brought it to me and said, ‘This is a good tune, enuh. You feel wi can reggae it?’ And I listened to it and start to sing it. I said, ‘Yeah man. This can reggae; it feels alright.’ From there, we decided to go into the studio and do some recording with it,” he said.
His version, I Wanna Wake Up With You, again had him on bass, Robbie Lyn playing keyboards and Lindo on guitar. Ruddy Thomas did engineering and mixing duties.
“The sessions started at Dynamic Sounds. When the rhythm was done we had a nice feel and I decide I’m gonna try my kinda style... It took me about an hour and a half and I also sang the harmony in little parts,” Gardiner recalled.
“The big thing about this song was that it was released right in the middle of Super Cat’s Boops craze, and there were about 40-odd versions of Boops playing on the radio... So I thought it would die because locally it wasn’t saying anything, as everyone was into Boops. But we sent it to New York, WLIB [radio station], and Boops was number one there too, but it crept up the charts. And as Boops fell down the charts, it went to number one and was there for five weeks,” he continued.
I Wanna Wake Up With You also did extremely well in Europe. It went number one for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart.
“It crossed over... They sent for Willie and myself to England and we shot the music video in one day. I was invited to the Top of The Pops [television show] to sing it,” Gardiner said.
It was the third best-selling single of 1986 in the UK and reached number one in Australia. It was number three in South Africa, spending 18 weeks on the charts. “I started getting a lot of shows... It was the right song at the right time. At the time big stars like Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Michael Jackson were also on the chart. It was nice while it lasted,” added Gardiner.
So Nice To Be With You and
I Wanna Wake Up With You remain crowd favourites at Gardiner’s shows.