R.I.P. Johnny Nash

[danfrank]

“I Can See Clearly Now” was one of my first 45 records when I was a kid, and the song completely holds up to this day. It is one of those songs that I turn up every time it gets played on the radio. I didn’t follow Nash’s career otherwise, but I give him props for supplying so much pleasure with that one terrific song.

[Mister Tee]

This is as clear an "in threes" case as you're going to get: all three had number 1 songs on Billboard between September and December of 1972. Chuck Berry and Michael Jackson, who also topped the charts in that stretch, and Billy Paul (whose "Me and Mrs. Jones" followed Reddy in the top spot) are all gone, so I guess no one else is in danger just now.

That Take a Giant step movie actually showed on TCM a while back. I watched the beginning, including credits, and thought to myself, that can't be the same Johnny Nash, but I went to IMDB and found it was so.

I actually liked another of his songs, Hold Me Tight, a lot more than I Can See Clearly. It was reggae-influenced, and a minor top ten hit, but I remember the Super Bowl-bound Jets (a phrase you don't hear much anymore) doing a version of it for a commercial that played endlessly on WABC.

[Big Magilla]

Here's your "death comes in threes" link to Helen Reddy and Mac Davis - all three were roughly the same age (Nash was two years older), and better known for their singing than their acting, but Nash's acting career came thirteen years earlier than his hit 70s single with 1959's Take a Giant Step in which he had the starring role as a high school senior. The screenplay was cowritten by Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca). Estelle Hemsley, who played his grandmother, was nominated for a Golden Globe for her preformance.

[Precious Doll]

If his only claim to fame was 'I Can See Clearly Now' he would more than earned his place in the history books:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/ ... es-aged-80