Who recorded it first
I Can See Clearly Now
Not a Jimmy Cliff original — a 1972 Johnny Nash single
Because Jimmy Cliff’s version soundtracked Cool Runnings in 1993, the song is often taken for a Jamaican reggae standard that Cliff originated. It isn’t. “I Can See Clearly Now” was written by the American singer Johnny Nash and first recorded by him, released as a single on Epic on 23 June 1972. Far from being an obscure first draft, Nash’s record spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 5 in the UK — Cliff’s recording is a cover of a song that had already topped the American chart.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Issued as a single on Epic on 23 June 1972, and as the title track and lead single of Nash’s album I Can See Clearly Now. Nash produced the session himself in London; Francis Monkman played the Moog synthesizer figure in the instrumental break.
Charted A No. 1 record, not a forgotten one: four weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 in Canada and South Africa, and No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart, where it spent fifteen weeks.
Hear Johnny Nash’s 1972 original recording (official audio) www.youtube.com · Posted by the JohnnyNashVEVO channel — the artist’s official VEVO/label channel, not a fan or compilation upload; YouTube’s own oEmbed data gives the uploader as JohnnyNashVEVO and the title as “Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now (Official Audio)”. MusicBrainz logs the 1972 Epic single recording at 2:45.The paper trail
MusicBrainz credits the composition to Johnny Nash as both composer and lyricist ↗, ISWC T-070.080.593-1.
The 1972 Epic 7-inch single was backed with “How Good It Is”, per the song’s Wikipedia entry ↗. The Bob Marley connection is real but separate: Nash had signed the Wailers to publishing deals in the late 1960s and recorded Marley’s “Stir It Up” himself. See Nash’s biography ↗.
The UK chart run is documented by the Official Charts Company ↗: first charted 24 June 1972, peaking at No. 5 on 22 July 1972.
Covers preceded Cliff’s by years — Ray Charles cut one for his 1977 album True to Life, and Ireland’s Hothouse Flowers had a hit with it in 1990, per Wikipedia ↗.
MusicBrainz: the work entry and its recordingsKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
Right song, wrong origin story
The confusion runs backwards here. Most misattribution stories involve a forgotten first version; this one involves a first version that was a smash hit and got overwritten anyway.
Jimmy Cliff, 1993
His recording bookends Cool Runnings, a film about a Jamaican bobsled team, sung by a Jamaican reggae legend. Everything about the packaging says “this is where the song comes from.”
Johnny Nash, 23 June 1972, Epic
Nash’s recording came first and was no minor release — four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 in the UK.
Johnny Nash
Nash is credited as both composer and lyricist. The original artist and the songwriter are the same person, which is rarer than you might expect.
An American singer, recorded in London
The reggae feel is real — Nash absorbed it recording in Kingston alongside Bob Marley — but the song is not a Jamaican traditional or a Kingston studio product.
Johnny Nash wrote it, recorded it first in 1972, and took it to No. 1. Jimmy Cliff covered it in 1993.
Context
How a No. 1 record got overwritten
The usual explanation for a forgotten original — it flopped, nobody heard it — does not apply. Nash’s record was one of the biggest American singles of 1972. What happened instead is that a film reassigned it. Cool Runnings put Cliff’s version in front of an audience that had not been born in 1972, in a context so thoroughly Jamaican that the song appeared to have come with the setting.
There is an irony in the reassignment. Nash’s reggae inflection was not an affectation: he had spent years recording in Kingston, co-founded JAD Records there, and signed Bob Marley and the Wailers to publishing contracts. He recorded Marley’s “Stir It Up” himself: in the United States it followed “I Can See Clearly Now” up the Hot 100 in early 1973, though in Britain it had already come and gone, peaking at No. 13 in April 1972, months before the bigger record charted there. The song sounds Jamaican because its American author had genuinely been listening — which is exactly what makes the misattribution so easy to make.
The chronology, step by step
- Late 1960s — Nash records in Kingston, co-founds JAD Records, and signs Bob Marley and the Wailers to publishing deals.
- 23 June 1972 — “I Can See Clearly Now”, written and produced by Nash, is released as a single on Epic, backed with “How Good It Is”.
- Summer 1972 — the single enters the UK chart on 24 June and peaks at No. 5 on 22 July.
- Late 1972 — it spends four weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and also tops the charts in Canada and South Africa.
- 1977 — Ray Charles records a version for his album True to Life.
- 1990 — Irish band Hothouse Flowers have a hit with it, reaching No. 5 in Ireland and No. 23 in the UK.
- October 1993 — Jimmy Cliff’s recording is released on Chaos/Columbia for the Cool Runnings soundtrack, reaching No. 18 in the US and No. 1 in France, Iceland and New Zealand.
It didn’t get forgotten. It got reassigned.