\u2018The Harder They Come\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-harder-they-come.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tCliff wrote \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d as the theme song for rude boy archetype Vincent \u201cIvanhoe\u201d Martin<\/a>, the character he portrayed in filmmaker Perry Henzell\u2019s gritty 1972 crime flick The Harder They Come<\/em>. \u201cAt first, the title track was \u2018Hard Road to Travel,’\u201d Cliff recalled in 2012<\/a>. \u201cBut one day we were talking about Ivanhoe, and Perry said: \u2018The harder they come, the harder they fall,\u2019 about his story. The line leapt out at me, so I wrote the song around it.\u201d With a spry rhythm, uplifting chord changes, and Cliff\u2019s memorable chorus, \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d captured Ivanhoe\u2019s sense of determination in a way that transcended the film. Joe Jackson, Rockers Revenge, and Madness all covered the tune in the decades that followed. \u2014Kory Grow<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Many Rivers to Cross\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-many-rivers-to-cross.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\t\u201cEveryone at some point asks \u2018Who am I? Why am I here? What am I going to do?’\u201d Jimmy Cliff once mused<\/a>, talking about the broad appeal of \u201cMany Rivers to Cross.\u201d The artist, who\u2019d had hits in Jamaica in his young teens, started writing the song in the Sixties when he moved from Kingston to the U.K. and realized it was a lot harder to make it there. \u201cI came full of vigor: I\u2019m going to make it, I\u2019m going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t really going like that, I was touring clubs, not breaking through. I was struggling, with work, life, my identity. I couldn\u2019t find my place; frustration fuelled the song.\u201d He transmuted his frustration into a stirring secular gospel song on his self-titled 1969 album and The Harder They Come <\/em>soundtrack (1972). It resonated with UB40, Cher, and Annie Lennox who scored hits with their renditions of the tune.\u00a0\u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018You Can Get It If You Really Want\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-you-can-get-it-if-you-really-want.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tA maxim as profound as the Stones\u2019 \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want,\u201d but far more hopeful, the jaunty 1970 single \u201cYou Can Get It If You Really Want\u201d perfectly set up Jimmy Cliff\u2019s career: Here is a man with a positive mental attitude and the willpower to rise above adversity, and he had a golden voice to match. The song didn\u2019t chart anywhere, unlike his Cat Stevens cover \u201cWild World\u201d or his own \u201cVietnam\u201d and \u201cWonderful World, Beautiful People,\u201d but it got a second life as the opening music in The Harder They Come<\/em>, introducing the world to Cliff\u2019s Jamaica. As the soundtrack\u2019s lead single, the song became one of the artist\u2019s career touchpoints. \u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Vietnam\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-vietnam.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tCliff\u2019s profound statement about Vietnam was inspired by his own grief over seeing a childhood friend changed by the war: \u201cWhen he came back, he didn\u2019t know me,\u201d Cliff once said<\/a>. \u201cWe met up in Somerton where they have aeroplanes that fly low to spray the banana trees, and I remember he started running for cover.\u201d Over a disarmingly bouncy beat and melody (and a repeated chanting of the word \u201cVietnam\u201d as the song\u2019s ghostly refrain), Cliff tells a devastating tale of the war through a series of letters and telegrams sent back home. No less than Bob Dylan called it the best protest song ever written. \u2014Jonathan Bernstein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Wonderful World, Beautiful People\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"(MANDATORY](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-wonderful-world-beautiful-people.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Koh Hasebe\/Shinko Music\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tOn classics like \u201cThe Harder They Come,\u201d Cliff injected a rich sense of bright exuberance into songs about struggle and hardship. But his 1969 cut \u201cWonderful World, Beautiful People\u201d was pure world-hugging anthemic joy, tapping into the Aquarian spirit of that year with a song about the universal power of human togetherness \u2014 he even extends the good vibes to U.S. president Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Released on Jamaica\u2019s iconic Trojan label, it brilliantly mixed a reggae groove with a stirring string arrangement, showing off Cliff\u2019s unique ability to record reggae with an eye to the wider pop world. Fittingly, the song made the pop charts in the U.S. and the U.K.\u00a0\u2014Jon Dolan<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Trapped\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Reggae](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-trapped.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9 Shepard Sherbell\/CORBIS SABA\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tSometimes it\u2019s worth playing the B side. \u201cTrapped,\u201d another song of spiritual resolve that Cliff wrote around the time he starred in The Harder They Come<\/em>, initially came out in 1972 as the flipside to both \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d and \u201cStruggling Man.\u201d But despite its bona fides (Cat Stevens produced the tune, and orchestrater extraordinaire Del Newman arranged the backing track), the song languished in obscurity for almost a decade, until Bruce Springsteen started adding \u201ca scintillating new song\u201d to his set lists in 1981, as Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> <\/em>put it: \u201c\u2018Trapped,\u2019 reportedly a Jimmy Cliff number reworked in the searing mode of Darkness on the Edge of Town<\/em>.\u201d The cover song stayed in Springsteen\u2019s set, and a few years later, his live recording<\/a> became a standout on the We Are the World <\/em>compilation. Cliff re-recorded the song for 1989\u2019s Images<\/em>, this time releasing it as an A side. \u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Treat the Youths Right\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-treat-the-youths-right.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Avalon\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\t
Reggae was a popular sound worldwide by the early Eighties, and Cliff was one of its elder statesmen. In 1982, he released a concert film<\/a> affirming his connection to the music\u2019s roots \u2014 and an album called Special,<\/em> where he gamely embraced its present and future. The brightly produced single \u201cTreat the Youths Right\u201d brings his signature sunny demeanor to an anthem of encouragement for a new generation of Jamaicans. As often in Cliff\u2019s music, there\u2019s a hint of social commentary underneath the radiant chorus, as he nods to rising unemployment and issues a friendly warning: \u201cTreat the youths right, or you\u2019ll be playing with dynamite.\u201d \u2014Simon Vozick-Levinson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Reggae Night\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Reggae](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-reggae-night.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Chris Morphet\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tJimmy Cliff\u2019s biggest hit of the Eighties is a feel-good jam about jamming \u2019til the morning light on a reggae night. Cowritten by La Toya Jackson and Kool and the Gang\u2019s Amir Bayyan, the song bears all the hallmarks of Eighties pop hits (soft-baked synths, a heavy backbeat, and bright brass filigrees), but Cliff makes it his own with his silky-smooth vocals and the conviction in his voice about just how important it is to let loose and embrace a night of good music and great vibes. The song, which appeared on Cliff\u2019s album The Power and the Glory <\/em>(1983), became an international hit (Number One in New Zealand<\/a>!) and a concert staple for him until his final tour in 2019. \u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018I Can See Clearly Now\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-i-can-see-clearly-now.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: David Redfern\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tTexas-born singer Johnny Nash\u2019s 1972 tune \u201cI Can See Clearly Now\u201d<\/a> was the first song with a distinct reggae influence to become a major hit in America, eventually reaching Number One on the Hot 100 and selling a million copies. The song mixed cloud-clearing optimism and gentle realism (when \u201cthe rain is gone,\u201d Nash sings that he \u201ccan see all obstacles in my way\u201d). Two decades later, another essential early-Seventies reggae ambassador, Jimmy Cliff, covered the song for the soundtrack to the 1993 movie Cool Runnings.<\/em> With a new, hip-hop-tinged groove, Cliff\u2019s gorgeously sung version returned \u201cI Can See Clearly Now\u201d to the Top 20. \u2014J.D.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018One More\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"MADRID,](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jimmy-cliff-essentials-one-more-2.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Carlos Alvarez\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tThe 2010s were a decade of joyful renewal for Cliff, who started the party at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and kept it going through the aptly titled 2012 album Rebirth<\/em>, produced by Rancid\u2019s Tim Armstrong. Nearing 70, he sang about his commitment to his craft with a vigor that transcended age: \u201cI got one more song I must sing.\u201d Live performances from that year showed his undiminished energy<\/a> onstage. \u201cHe just loves performing,\u201d Armstrong told<\/a> Rolling Stone<\/em>.\u201cWhether it\u2019s playing in front of three people or 30,000, he\u2019s bringin\u2019 it.\u201d \u2014S.V.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\tCliff wrote \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d as the theme song for rude boy archetype Vincent \u201cIvanhoe\u201d Martin<\/a>, the character he portrayed in filmmaker Perry Henzell\u2019s gritty 1972 crime flick The Harder They Come<\/em>. \u201cAt first, the title track was \u2018Hard Road to Travel,’\u201d Cliff recalled in 2012<\/a>. \u201cBut one day we were talking about Ivanhoe, and Perry said: \u2018The harder they come, the harder they fall,\u2019 about his story. The line leapt out at me, so I wrote the song around it.\u201d With a spry rhythm, uplifting chord changes, and Cliff\u2019s memorable chorus, \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d captured Ivanhoe\u2019s sense of determination in a way that transcended the film. Joe Jackson, Rockers Revenge, and Madness all covered the tune in the decades that followed. \u2014Kory Grow<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEveryone at some point asks \u2018Who am I? Why am I here? What am I going to do?’\u201d Jimmy Cliff once mused<\/a>, talking about the broad appeal of \u201cMany Rivers to Cross.\u201d The artist, who\u2019d had hits in Jamaica in his young teens, started writing the song in the Sixties when he moved from Kingston to the U.K. and realized it was a lot harder to make it there. \u201cI came full of vigor: I\u2019m going to make it, I\u2019m going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t really going like that, I was touring clubs, not breaking through. I was struggling, with work, life, my identity. I couldn\u2019t find my place; frustration fuelled the song.\u201d He transmuted his frustration into a stirring secular gospel song on his self-titled 1969 album and The Harder They Come <\/em>soundtrack (1972). It resonated with UB40, Cher, and Annie Lennox who scored hits with their renditions of the tune.\u00a0\u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tA maxim as profound as the Stones\u2019 \u201cYou Can\u2019t Always Get What You Want,\u201d but far more hopeful, the jaunty 1970 single \u201cYou Can Get It If You Really Want\u201d perfectly set up Jimmy Cliff\u2019s career: Here is a man with a positive mental attitude and the willpower to rise above adversity, and he had a golden voice to match. The song didn\u2019t chart anywhere, unlike his Cat Stevens cover \u201cWild World\u201d or his own \u201cVietnam\u201d and \u201cWonderful World, Beautiful People,\u201d but it got a second life as the opening music in The Harder They Come<\/em>, introducing the world to Cliff\u2019s Jamaica. As the soundtrack\u2019s lead single, the song became one of the artist\u2019s career touchpoints. \u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tCliff\u2019s profound statement about Vietnam was inspired by his own grief over seeing a childhood friend changed by the war: \u201cWhen he came back, he didn\u2019t know me,\u201d Cliff once said<\/a>. \u201cWe met up in Somerton where they have aeroplanes that fly low to spray the banana trees, and I remember he started running for cover.\u201d Over a disarmingly bouncy beat and melody (and a repeated chanting of the word \u201cVietnam\u201d as the song\u2019s ghostly refrain), Cliff tells a devastating tale of the war through a series of letters and telegrams sent back home. No less than Bob Dylan called it the best protest song ever written. \u2014Jonathan Bernstein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tOn classics like \u201cThe Harder They Come,\u201d Cliff injected a rich sense of bright exuberance into songs about struggle and hardship. But his 1969 cut \u201cWonderful World, Beautiful People\u201d was pure world-hugging anthemic joy, tapping into the Aquarian spirit of that year with a song about the universal power of human togetherness \u2014 he even extends the good vibes to U.S. president Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Released on Jamaica\u2019s iconic Trojan label, it brilliantly mixed a reggae groove with a stirring string arrangement, showing off Cliff\u2019s unique ability to record reggae with an eye to the wider pop world. Fittingly, the song made the pop charts in the U.S. and the U.K.\u00a0\u2014Jon Dolan<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tSometimes it\u2019s worth playing the B side. \u201cTrapped,\u201d another song of spiritual resolve that Cliff wrote around the time he starred in The Harder They Come<\/em>, initially came out in 1972 as the flipside to both \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d and \u201cStruggling Man.\u201d But despite its bona fides (Cat Stevens produced the tune, and orchestrater extraordinaire Del Newman arranged the backing track), the song languished in obscurity for almost a decade, until Bruce Springsteen started adding \u201ca scintillating new song\u201d to his set lists in 1981, as Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> <\/em>put it: \u201c\u2018Trapped,\u2019 reportedly a Jimmy Cliff number reworked in the searing mode of Darkness on the Edge of Town<\/em>.\u201d The cover song stayed in Springsteen\u2019s set, and a few years later, his live recording<\/a> became a standout on the We Are the World <\/em>compilation. Cliff re-recorded the song for 1989\u2019s Images<\/em>, this time releasing it as an A side. \u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\t \t<\/p>\n \n\tJimmy Cliff\u2019s biggest hit of the Eighties is a feel-good jam about jamming \u2019til the morning light on a reggae night. Cowritten by La Toya Jackson and Kool and the Gang\u2019s Amir Bayyan, the song bears all the hallmarks of Eighties pop hits (soft-baked synths, a heavy backbeat, and bright brass filigrees), but Cliff makes it his own with his silky-smooth vocals and the conviction in his voice about just how important it is to let loose and embrace a night of good music and great vibes. The song, which appeared on Cliff\u2019s album The Power and the Glory <\/em>(1983), became an international hit (Number One in New Zealand<\/a>!) and a concert staple for him until his final tour in 2019. \u2014K.G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tTexas-born singer Johnny Nash\u2019s 1972 tune \u201cI Can See Clearly Now\u201d<\/a> was the first song with a distinct reggae influence to become a major hit in America, eventually reaching Number One on the Hot 100 and selling a million copies. The song mixed cloud-clearing optimism and gentle realism (when \u201cthe rain is gone,\u201d Nash sings that he \u201ccan see all obstacles in my way\u201d). Two decades later, another essential early-Seventies reggae ambassador, Jimmy Cliff, covered the song for the soundtrack to the 1993 movie Cool Runnings.<\/em> With a new, hip-hop-tinged groove, Cliff\u2019s gorgeously sung version returned \u201cI Can See Clearly Now\u201d to the Top 20. \u2014J.D.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe 2010s were a decade of joyful renewal for Cliff, who started the party at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and kept it going through the aptly titled 2012 album Rebirth<\/em>, produced by Rancid\u2019s Tim Armstrong. Nearing 70, he sang about his commitment to his craft with a vigor that transcended age: \u201cI got one more song I must sing.\u201d Live performances from that year showed his undiminished energy<\/a> onstage. \u201cHe just loves performing,\u201d Armstrong told<\/a> Rolling Stone<\/em>.\u201cWhether it\u2019s playing in front of three people or 30,000, he\u2019s bringin\u2019 it.\u201d \u2014S.V.L.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\u2018Many Rivers to Cross\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018You Can Get It If You Really Want\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Vietnam\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Wonderful World, Beautiful People\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Trapped\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Treat the Youths Right\u2019<\/h2>\n
Reggae was a popular sound worldwide by the early Eighties, and Cliff was one of its elder statesmen. In 1982, he released a concert film<\/a> affirming his connection to the music\u2019s roots \u2014 and an album called Special,<\/em> where he gamely embraced its present and future. The brightly produced single \u201cTreat the Youths Right\u201d brings his signature sunny demeanor to an anthem of encouragement for a new generation of Jamaicans. As often in Cliff\u2019s music, there\u2019s a hint of social commentary underneath the radiant chorus, as he nods to rising unemployment and issues a friendly warning: \u201cTreat the youths right, or you\u2019ll be playing with dynamite.\u201d \u2014Simon Vozick-Levinson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n\u2018Reggae Night\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018I Can See Clearly Now\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018One More\u2019<\/h2>\n