Toussaint Smith, Staff Reporter
Members of the Chosen Few (from left) Errol Brown, Bunny Brown, Frank Spence and Buster Brown. - FILE
The Gleaner has had its fingers on the pulse of the entertainment scene for decades. Naturally, our picture archives contain many a 1,000-word story about those who have given us happy, memorable moments. In our series 'From the Archives', we pluck a pic and take a peek into the past, speaking to the central figure about the moment and subsequent events. Today, we speak with Bunny Brown, once a member of The Chosen Few.
THE STORY reads: England: The Jamaican singing sensation, The Chosen Few, poses on set at a photo shoot. The Chosen Few are the top singing group from Jamaica. 1976.
Sunday Gleaner: What was the year 1976 like for The Chosen Few?
Bunny Brown: That year we got signed to Polydor Records and that was a great achievement as a group coming out from Jamaica, getting signed to an overseas label. And what happened is that we got signed for singing R&B music, not reggae, even though we had five top 10 reggae hits like Ebony Eyes, Your Are a Big Girl Now, Queen Majesty, Everybody Plays a Fool, In the Rain, Drift Away, Shaft and other songs that were number one in Jamaica. So that was a big achievement in 1976 and when we started touring Europe, we did like Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Paris, Rome, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia. We did that like six months a year, 'cause we lived in England, being signed to a British label. I worked with people like Donna Summer, Cliff Richards, Boney M, Sweet Sensations and also Heat Wave (the group that did Always and Forever, Boogie Nights and Mind Blowing Decisions), Main Ingredients and also Luther Vandross, when he was with a group call Change, the group Sting, Delmar Brown, the keyboard player for Sting, Kenwood Denard from the group Manhattan Transfer, Kevin Kendrick, who is now with the group OutKast, and Rod Temperton who wrote all of Michael Jackson's hits on his Thriller album.
SG: What was it like working with the other members of The Chosen Few?
BB: It was good, because we grew up together. We used to sing at school concerts like Wolmer's and KC. I used to go Campion College, so I took Scotty, deejay Scotty who died years ago. So we started off singing. Derrick Harriot used to manage the group. Derrick Harriot saw us singing solo and said why don't you all sing as a group? That was when I formed the group, took the name out of the Bible and called it The Chosen Few and we've been performing as friends until today we still are.
SG: Tell us one of your most notable achievements with the group.
BB: One of our most notable achievements is we got the key to the city of Hern in Germany, close to Stuttgart. That is a very huge achievement for the group. We were given the keys, bouquet of flowers, all sort of things from the mayor of that city.
SG: Why did you choose to go solo?
BB: Going solo didn't just come I did a single. We left Polydor and we went to another label it was the label that had Donna Summer, they had people like Boney M who did Rivers of Babylon and stuff like that and all these big names. I did a single while I was with the group called Strawberry Little 23, that was originally recorded by a group called Brother Johnsons. The single was a crossover funk-reggae, to fuse R&B with reggae, and what happened is that the record took off and EMI signed me, the single to EMI, anyway. It really started to show some strong sales and they sent me to the United States to do some promotion on my own and when I came back the group had work to do and I had work to do, trying to promote this single. And then it started to get hectic, 'cause the group was touring like six months a year and then sometimes it was like I was the lead singer of the group and the one who put the group together, even though all of the members were very strong lead singers, strong personalities, could dance, perform and entertain. But one of the greatest things with the group was that they were all individuals who could perform solo anyway; me going solo kind of put a little hurt on the group. And while doing that, I got calls to do background vocals for groups like Heatwave and lot of work with other British artistes. So that kind of caused me to have gone solo, because the pressure was getting too heavy for me and the group, and sometimes we couldn't collaborate on tours.
SG: What are you up to now?
BB: Right now I've been at Studio One recording a new album, Ready for The World, and we've put together a thing called JAVA (Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes), that was put together by myself, Michael Barnett, Keith Brown and Pat Kelly. And I'm working on a new album, already gone seven tracks. Some of the recordings will be done in the States to add a little R&B flavour and a surprise guest artiste for the album. That's going to be big.
