R&B legend Sam Moore of Sam & Dave tells me that Johnny Nash, who died this week at age 80, wrote his first hit for the duo long before they got to Altantic Records and had “Soul Man,” and so on.

The song was called “So Nice While It Lasted,” and it charted in 1963 with an A side called “You Ain’t No Big Thing, Baby.” This was when Sam & Dave were signed to Morris Levy’s Roulette Records and not having hits.

Sam and Johnny Nash remained friends all these years, of course, because Sam is friends with everyone. He turns 85 on October 12th.

Here’s the record. The songwriting credit is “Billy” Nash because that was either a pseudonym or someone got it wrong. You can hear Sam’s tenor slicing through the record, a foreshadowing of what would come.

Here’s the A side:

Eddie van Halen played the memorable guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s instant classic, “Beat It,” back in 1983. Producer Quincy Jones paid tribute to him tonight:

“RIP to the GREAT @eddievanhalen
. Even though it took a couple calls to convince U it was actually me on the phone :) U killed it on Thriller, & your classic
Guitar
solo on Beat It will never be matched. I’ll always smile when I think of our time working together. Eternal
Red heart
& props.”

RIP to the GREAT @eddievanhalen. Even though it took a couple calls to convince U it was actually me on the phone :) U killed it on Thriller, & your classic 🎸solo on Beat It will never be matched. I’ll always smile when I think of our time working together. Eternal ❤️ & props.

— Quincy Jones (@QuincyDJones) October 7, 2020

Johnny Nash has died at age 80. He wasn’t Jamaican– he was from Houston– but he loved reggae music and was responsible in part for making it popular in the US. In 1972, after a few years of trying to get hits and recording in Jamaica, he hit it big with the reggae inspired, “I Can See Clearly Now.” The song was number 1 for four weeks and has never left the radio. It’s also incredibly popular in commercials.

Nash kept recording and performing, but nothing came close to that popularity. He was quite friendly with Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, aka The Wailers. The follow up single to “I Can See Clearly” was a cover of Marley’s “Stir It Up,” which was a decent hit and is also heard often on the radio some 48 years later.

Reggae was really not known in the US widely until the early 70s. Paul Simon introduced the sound with “Mother and Child Reunion.” But it was Johnny Nash and “I Can See Clearly” that paved the way for Marley et al having so much success. Eric Clapton helped, too, with “I Shot the Sheriff” in 1973.

SO RIP Johnny Nash. Your song is being played somewhere right now.