The 1967 song “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” by American singer Brenda Holloway, which Alton Ellis, the Godfather of Rocksteady,
covered, is included in the advertisement for the Remember the Why 2023 basketball line from German sportswear company Adidas.
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According to whosampled.com, there are 28 cover versions of Holloway’s song, which has also been sampled in 10 other songs. Ellis’ smash song, which was published in 1970 on Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One and Trojan/Treasure Isle label, is one of these 28 cover versions.
Regarding the song’s chart performance with Ellis, hardly much has been reported.
The official archive for Jamaican history and culture, the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ), points out that Ellis ” “scored big with his rendition of You’ve Made Me So Very Happy, and the following year, Deliver Us,” in 1970.
The late Kingston native is also referred to in the NLJ as “one of Jamaica’s most popular singers whose music, though not limited to Rocksteady, was particularly definitive of that era.
The agency stated, “His song Come Do The Rocksteady was the first to include the word rocksteady and as such has historical value in the development of Jamaican music. He had a strong fan base in Jamaica and the Jamaican immigrant community in Britain and unlike other ska and rocksteady artists at the time he achieved success on the international scene.”
Ellis, who was born in Kingston in 1944, grew up in Trench Town. At the age of 15, he created a duo with his buddy Eddie Perkins, and the two of them cut their debut track, Muriel, with Coxsone Dodd as producer. The song, according to the NLJ, was an instant hit and peaked on the Jamaican charts.
The NLJ claims that Ellis formed the Flames after leaving Dodd’s Studio One for Duke Reid’s Treasure Aisle studio in the early 1960s. The Flames were responsible for one of 1966’s biggest singles, Dance Crasher.
Many claims that his song Girl I’ve Got a Date, which followed, was the first Rocksteady track.
Ellis went back to Studio One and recorded songs there, including A Fool, which was allegedly only one of several songs that were influenced by “the stormy relationship with his first wife, Pearl”.
His 1967 song I’m Still in Love was redone in 2003 by Sean Paul and Sasha, who added a Dancehall twist.
In 1994, the Jamaican government awarded Alton Ellis the Order of Distinction in appreciation of his contribution to the island’s popular culture.
Even though he continued to record songs in Jamaica, he relocated to the UK in 1973 and passed away from cancer at the Hammersmith Hospital in London in October 2008.
Regarding Adidas Remember the Why campaign, the sporting behemoth claims that “the new collection, which encompasses sleeveless tees to hoodies, sweatshirts, shorts, and track jackets, is crafted to serve the modern athlete while building on pillars of the past” and establishes its versatility by focusing on the essentials: form, function, and color.
The company stated, “the result is a pinnacle assortment that serves to empower and inspire on our journey back to our first Why, whether it was on the hardwood, in a classroom, on stage, or at home.”
“The 2023 Collection brings together time-tested silhouettes for looks that are undeniably Adidas Basketball. It makes any city, street, or neighborhood a home court—embodying a refined vision for sportswear that’s rooted in our own Why: a love for hoops and a belief that the game can take you anywhere,” it noted.
In less than a year, a major international corporation has utilized Elli’s’ You’ve Made Me So Very Happy as the second classic Jamaican mega-hit to be used in music synchronization (the usage of portions of a song inside movies, television shows, television and radio ads, and video games).
In its debut video commercial, released in November 2021, Meta—the new name for Facebook’s parent company—used the 1992 song Way In My Brain by the UK group SL2, which significantly sampled Wayne Smith’s 1985 single Under Mi Sleng Teng.
Later that month, Dancehall superstar Shaggy urged his fellow Jamaican musicians to concentrate more on creating songs for music synchronization because these songs had the potential to increase their income.
Shaggy mentioned the Living Dangerously vocalist as a fine example of an artist who has produced songs that are in demand for music synchronization in an interview with Television Jamaica, adding that the songs’ tone, language, and melodies were what made them “great sync records.”
