CaribWorldNews, LONDON, England, Sat. Oct. 11, 2008: Music fans of rocksteady great,  Alton Ellis, are in deep mourning following the death of the Jamaican singer in the UK Friday night.

Ellis, 70, died at the Hammersmith Hospital, West London, after collapsing during a show in London in August. He has been battling cancer.

Ellis along with keyboardist Jackie Mittoo invented the Rocksteady beat in the mid-1960s. He popularized that era of Jamaican music and remained a celebrated performer for several decades.

Jamaica Minister Of Information, Culture, Youth And Sports, Olivia Grange, remembered Ellis as `a true pioneer whose creativity and inventiveness provided us with music to reflect on and music for dancing pleasure.`

`This was amply demonstrated by hits such as `Arise Black Man,` Black Man’s Pride,` `Blessing of Love,` `Lord Deliver Us,` `Cry Tough` `Dance Crasher,` and `I am Still in Love with You,` she added.

Ellis was born in 1938 and grew up in Kingston's Trench Town district. Born into a musical family, he learned to play piano at a young age. He initially sought fame as a dancer, competing on Vere Johns' Opportunity Hour. After winning a couple of competitions, he switched to singing, starting his career in 1959 as part of the duo Alton & Eddy with Eddy Perkins. Ellis and Perkins recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One, initially in the R&B style, having a massive hit with `Muriel` (from Dodd's first commercially-oriented recording session at Federal studios),[ recording a follow-up, `My Heaven`, before Perkins moved to the United States. Ellis continued to work for Dodd and also recorded for his arch-rival, Duke Reid on his Treasure Isle label.

By the mid 1960s, ska was moving on and the beat was slowing down to rocksteady and becoming associated with the violent rude boy subculture in Jamaican dancehalls. Many artists made records referring to the rude boys, including Ellis, although his records were consistently anti-rudie, including `Don't Trouble People`, `Dance Crasher`, and `Cry Tough`, in contrast to artists such as Bob Marley, who Ellis blamed for glorifiying the rudies. Recording with a backing trio, The Flames (the varying line-up of which included his brother Leslie Ellis, David `Baby G` Gordon and Winston Jarrett), Ellis scored big with the hits `Girl I've Got a Date`, `Cry Tough` and `Get Ready - Rock Steady`, which was the first song to refer to the name of the newer genre. As rocksteady dominated the Jamaican airwaves for the next two years, Ellis continued to score hits for Treasure Isle, working with artists such as Lloyd Charmers, Phyllis Dillon and The Heptones. His Mr. Soul of Jamaica album is regarded as one of the definitive rocksteady albums.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ellis recorded for some of Jamaica's top producers, having two huge hits with Lloyd Daley in `Deliver Us` and `Back to Africa`, and recording for Bunny Lee, Keith Hudson, and Herman Chin Loy.[8] Ellis had toured the United Kingdom in the 1960s with Studio One band the Soul Vendors, and from 1972 he based himself in the UK.

Ellis continued to record and perform regularly, recording in the early 1980s for emerging producers including Henry `Junjo` Lawes, Sugar Minott, and King Jammy. He also opened up the Alltone record shop in South London, and started a record label of the same name.

The `Mad Mad` riddim, first recorded by Ellis in 1967 would later be recycled in more than one hundred other songs. The instantly recognizable three-note descending horn line was reinterpreted by Henry `Junjo` Lawes and eventually became known widely as the `Diseases` reggae riddim. `Diseases` is notably utilized in Yellowman's hit song ``Zungguzungguguzungguzeng`, which has in turn has been sampled and reinterpreted by a long list of popular hip hop artists including KRS One, The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur and Blackstar. This constant reinterpretation and referencing has made Ellis a major but little-known influence in the trajectory of dancehall, reggae and hip hop.

Ellis continued to be active on the reggae scene until his health began to deteriorate. In December 2007, he was admitted to hospital in London for treatment of cancer of the lymph glands, but he returned to live performance after receiving chemotherapy.

He was the older brother of the late Hortense Ellis, and the father of more than twenty children including Noel Ellis and Christopher Ellis, who are both reggae singers.

He is survived by more than 20 children.