Boris Gardiner

Gardiner performed on the tourist circuit for much of the 1960s and was a member of Carlos Malcolm & the Afro Caribs and Byron Lee's Dragonaires.[1 In the late 1960s and 1970s he worked extensively as a session musician as a member of the Now Generation, The Upsetters, The Aggrovators, and The Crystallites.[1[2

As a solo artist, Gardiner had a hit with the song "Elizabethan Reggae" in 1970, a version of Ronald Binge's "Elizabethan Serenade".[1 When the single was released in the United Kingdom, the first copies were printed with the label incorrectly identifying Byron Lee (not Gardiner) as the performer. Rather than performing on it, Lee produced the track. The UK Singles Chart printed this error for the first chart entry and the first four weeks of its re-entry into the charts. After 28 February 1970, all printings gave Gardiner credit.[3

His debut album, Reggae Happening, was also released in 1970 and (although it did not chart). Music journalist Ian McCann said that the album "sold respectably for a reggae LP" in the UK. Although Gardiner continued to be successful in Jamaica, he had no more hits in the UK during that decade.

In 1986, Gardiner recorded the single "I Want to Wake Up with You," which became a surprise number 1 in the UK. It spent two months in the top ten. The accompanying album, Everything to Me also included the follow-up hit, "You're Everything to Me," which peaked at number 11. The single "The Meaning of Christmas" was also released later that year.[3

Later, Gardiner signed to RCA Records.

In 2002, a 22-track anthology, The Very Best of Boris Gardiner, was issued on CD by Music Club.