Wayne McGhie was a singer and songwriter largely credited with creating Canada’s first funk album. He was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1947, and grew up singing, playing the guitar, and playing the tuba at the Montego Bay Boys Club. He earned his initial recognition through regular performances at local talent shows, later performing with the Celestials, Dizzy Barker, and Jimmy Wisdom.

McGhie settled in Toronto in 1967 as part of the Caribbean influx of immigrants in the 1960’s and became a central figure in the Little Jamaica community of Toronto. At the time, fellow Jamaican-born musician Jo Jo Bennett was looking to assemble a house band to perform at the West Indian Federation Club (WIF). He sent for a number of Jamaican musicians living in the city, and McGhie was among them. Soon, the WIF Club became one of the hottest nightspots in the city, and McGhie, a sought-after songwriter. In 1960, he recorded Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy, released on Quality Music’s Birchmount Records in 1970. This record is credited with creating Canadian funk – fusing elements of reggae, jazz, R&B, pop, and rock. Personnel included other Jamaican-born Toronto-based musicians like Alton Ellis, Ike Bennett, and Everton “Pablo” Paul. Unfortunately, the album sold poorly, and the remaining copies were soon after destroyed in a fire at Quality Music.

McGhie continued to record in the 1970’s, travelling back to Jamaica to record at Studio One with Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, then returning to Toronto to form the band RAM. The group released one single, “Love Is the Answer” in 1972 before dissolving. With the emergence of hip hop in the 1980s, Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy became a hot commodity for its’ rich sample-worthy content of R&B, blues, soul, funk, and reggae influences. Word of the album’s brilliance quickly spread throughout the hip-hop community, and copies began selling for as high as $800 a piece. McGhie was sampled by artists like Nas, Flying Lotus, and on Toronto hip hop duo Ghetto Concept’s “Certified” – a song that was key in kickstarting the mid-90s Toronto hip hop era.

In 2003, Jay Douglas, and Matt Sullivan, owner of Light in the Attic Records, began to search for McGhie for his permission to reissue Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy. They found him living with his sister in her Scarborough home, and he was able to learn that his sole album was finally getting the attention it deserved. The record was officially re-issued in 2004, three decades after its initial release, and again in 2014. His tracks were also featured on Light in the Attic’s Jamaica to Toronto compilation album.

After continued health problems, Wayne McGhie passed away in July of 2017. Wayne was a catalyst in Toronto’s live music scene, and Wayne McGhie and the Sounds of Joy remains an important piece of historic relevance in Canadian music.