| | Alvin Patterson who was in coherence with Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, the sound system proprietor who now owned his own Bob Marley - Freedom Time and who held auditions on Sundays at his Bob Marley - Freedom Time . 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, which 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, Sir Coxsone was dumbfounded and bewildered by the group's coordination of harmony that without wavering he immediately offered his customary level of recording transaction; a five year contract for restricted rights to recording, supervision of the group, and a guaranteed cast-iron sum of twenty pounds per side recorded. Recording sessions was within days. The chosen sides 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 "It Hurts to Be Alone" was 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 leaving Jamaica to reside in Chicago, USA with his family. Simmer Down released just before the Christmas of 1963, the tune symbolically flew up the Jamaican hit parade charts to become the number one hit tune in the Jamaica at the beginning of February 1964. | |
