The 1972 Johnny Nash song “I Can See Clearly Now” was covered by Jamaican legend Jimmy Cliff, earning him his first Silver certification in the UK.
The song sold more than 200,000 units in the UK, according to The Official Charts Company, and was given the Brit Certified Silver Award on October 18, 2024, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
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Cliff’s signature was on the original I Can See Clearly Now, even before his manager David Sonenberg approached him in 1993 about the singer’s possibility of doing the cover for the movie Cool Runnings’ soundtrack.
Twenty-one years before he would perform a cover of the song, Cliff told reporters in 2020 that he had a deep familiarity with the song when talking about his friendship with Nash following the American singer’s death, “I was actually at Island Studios in London when ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ was recorded. I actually played bongo drums on the [original] track.”
In addition, the 78-year-old singer, whose name is James Chambers, claimed that his version of the song, which is his highest-charting single in the US and his third-highest in the UK, almost didn’t make it.
“The company actually wanted me to do You Can Get It If You Really Want,” Cliff stated, “but Sonenberg said no, he wanted that song for our movie that we would be doing.”
He noted, “He suggested to them, ‘How about doing ‘I Can See Clearly Now’?’ I never told Johnny at the time I was doing it. I didn’t have to tell him as it would just go through his publishing company.”
According to Jimmy Cliff, who became friends with Nash when he was living in London, the two had a sort of reunion years after Nash recorded the Gold-certified song.
“I saw him years later after he did the original recording of ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, and he said ‘Remember we recorded the song at Island’. I said ‘You remember that?’ He said, ‘I remember that, I remember more too’, and we laughed,” he stated.
Cliff continued to reflect on that reconnection by saying: “Then I said, ‘I have a song for you’, and he came back at me sharp and said, ‘I have a song for you too’, like he was saying you think I can’t write songs, I can write one for you too. He was just a really very nice bredrin.”
“I met him in England years ago when I used to reside there. Danny Simms had a house in London, and we used to meet up around there and hang out and we became friends.”
Johnny Nash, 80, passed away at home in Houston, Texas, in October 2020 from natural causes after a period of deteriorating health.
His 1972 No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts, “I Can See Clearly Now,” contributed to the popularization of reggae music in the US.
In 1994, Cliff’s rendition spent 25 weeks at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. He had previously appeared on the Hot 100 list with Come Into My Life, which peaked at No. 89 in 1970, and Wonderful World, Beautiful People, which peaked at No. 25 in 1970.
In 1994, Cliff’s song “I Can See Clearly Now” peaked at number 23 on the UK Singles Chart. Wonderful World, Wonderful People, which peaked at No. 6 in 1969, and Wild World, which peaked at No. 8 in 1970, are his top-charting singles in the nation.
