For the second straight year, Leroy Sibbles has reason to celebrate. Despite the uncertainties Covid-19 posed, 2021 was fruitful for the singer/musician/producer.
Sibbles had success in all facets. As an artist, he scored with a cover of James Brown's "Try Me" which topped the Clinton Lindsay charts in South Florida and New York.
"Truly Madly Deeply" and "To be Loved", songs he produced for singers Young Garvey and Chris McDonald respectively, also topped the Lindsay charts.
Sibbles played bass on all the songs which he produced for his Bright Beam label.
For Sibbles, who turns 73 in January, it is tougher to get a hit song these days, compared to when his career started in the 1960's with The Heptones.
"It’s not as easy to make a number one in this time as it was before. Once it was one or two radio stations, now it’s too many and it’s harder to communicate with 20 radio stations and 200 DJs," he noted. "And then the music has changed, the lyrics also. But I don’t let this stop me from making great music as I know it and there is always an ear for real music."
In early 2021, Sibbles became the oldest artist to top the South Florida Foundation Network Chart which he did with "Try Me". It was a massive shot in the arm for the former lead singer of The Heptones whose career started with that trio at Studio One in the early 1960's.
With The Heptones, Sibbles recorded a flurry of hit songs including "Fatty Fatty", "On Top", "I Shall be Released", "Sweet Talking" and "Book of Rules".
He migrated to Canada in the early 1970's and lived in that country for over 20 years, helping to develop its reggae scene.
Leroy Sibbles continues his search for hit songs in late January with the release of
"You Make me Feel Brand New", a duet with Marcia Griffiths. It is a cover of The Stylistics 1974 classic.
Written By Howard Campbell