Download Free Maxi Priest * Songs

Maxi Priest music biography continued...

at his mother's Pentecostal Church. A company that had hired him to construct sound systems discovered he could sing, and it wasn't long before Priest was participating in live dance hall shows. Priest was eventually signed by Virgin Records and released his debut album You're Safe, in 1985. It yielded the U.K. hit "In the Springtime" and was followed by 1986's Intentions, which featured two more U.K. successes in "Strollin' On" and the Van Morrison cover "Crazy Love." Priest's big breakthrough in the U.S. would come with 1988's Sly & Robbie-produced Maxi Priest, which featured a Top 30 cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" and another chartbusting cover of Robert Palmer's "Some Guys Have All the Luck." Now hugely popular in the U.K., and on his way in the U.S., Priest recorded what would become his biggest-selling album, Bonafide. Released in 1990, it climbed up the charts by virtue of the steamy, soulful single "Close to You," which went all the way to number one on the American pop charts, and made Maxi Priest an instant superstar.



After following with a greatest hits collection, Priest recorded a few albums which failed to be as commercially popular as their predecessors. However, in 1996 he came back with Man with the Fun in 1996, which yielded a gigantic hit single in "That Girl." With 1999's 1999's CombiNation, Priest moved even further away from his roots with hip hop tracks and soul balladry. Since then, he has recorded two creatively adventurous albums—2 the Max (2005) and Refused (2007). No matter how much he chooses to experiment, though, Maxi Priest may always be remembered as the sexy stud who made mainstream pop audiences fall in love with reggae.