Alvin Patterson who was in coherence with Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, the sound system proprietor who now owned his own recording studio in Kingston and who generally held auditions on Sundays at his studio. Knowing of the close unity Alvin Patterson (nicknamed "Seeco") had with Coxsone, Joe Higgs encouraged Patterson to take Bob Marley and the rest of the group, at the time had consisted of Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braitheway, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith to audition at Studio One in 1963. Upon listening to the group, Coxsone Dodd became rather dumbfounded and bewildered by the group's professional vocal harmony! After listening the group's synchronization, Coxsone acted immediately without any precariousness, offered his customary level of recording transaction that resulted in a five year contract with restricted rights to recording, supervision of the group, and a guaranteed cast-iron sum of twenty pounds per side that recorded with no royalty from sales. Within days of the group's new contract recording sessions was set up ready for the group to record. The chosen tracks, were: "I'm Still Waiting" and "It Hurts To Be Alone." Coxsone's in house arranger Ernest Ranglin' directed the creation of both sides. 300 copies of each tunes were pressed and distributed to sound systems! | | The response to the ska tune "It Hurts to Be Alone" the producer felt that it was much better than "I'm Still Waiting." Shortly after this news came to Coxsone, he called the group back to his studio. Junior Braithwaite, who sang lead on "It Hurts to Be Alone," had left the group due to his leaving Jamaica to reside in the USA with his family. Simmer Down ska released just before the Christmas of 1963, the tune symbolically flew up the Jamaican hit parade charts rapidly to become the number one hit tune in the Jamaica at the beginning of February 1964! |
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