Barry Biggs

Barry Biggs (born 1947, although some accounts list 1953;[1] St. Andrew, Jamaica) is a reggae singer, best known in the UK for his cover of the Blue Magic song, "Sideshow", which got to #3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1977 Biggs worked as an recording engineer and cameraman with the Jamaican Broadcasting Company, and also spent time as a member of the band the Astronauts, before becoming the lead singer for Byron Lee's Dragonaires.[1][3] It was at Lee's Dynamic Sounds studio (where he also worked as a producer and engineer) that Biggs recorded his first Jamaican hit, a cover of The Osmonds' One Bad Apple.[1][3] He broke through to international success in 1976 with Work All Day, which had been recorded seven years earlier.[1][3] Biggs had six hit singles on the UK Singles Chart between 1976 and 1981, the most successful of these, Sideshow, reaching #3 in January 1977.[4] He recorded two songs with Bunny Lee; Sincerely and You're welcome which did well in reggae charts.[3] He topped the reggae chart in the UK with Wide Awake in a Dream and A Promise is a Comfort to a Fool.[3] Many of Biggs' recordings were reggae cover versions of popular soul hits, including songs such as Stevie Wonder's - My Cherie Amour ,Sideshow and Three Ring Cicus by Blue Magic and others originally by The Chi-Lites, The Moonglows (Sincerely), and The Temptations (Just My Imagination).[5] Unlike many of his contemporaries, he avoided the political and Rasta themes then popular in Jamaica.[1] Biggs continued to perform occasionally in the 2000s, notably at a service of thanksgiving for his former bandleader, Byron Lee, in 2008.[6]