Maxwell Livingston Smith, November 22 1944 , St. Ann, Jamaica,
The Emotions were formed in 1965 when Romeo joined up with Kenneth Knight and Lloyd Shakespeare, while he also worked as a sales representative for the Caltone record label. In spite of the group’s failure to audition for other producers, Ken Lack overheard Smith singing to himself while working, and offered them an audition. It was in 1966 that the Emotions had their first hit with “(Buy You) A Rainbow”, which was produced by Lack. By 1968, Max Romeo, the singer of the Emotions, had begun his solo career, but he did not have any significant success on the charts. The group proceeded on to release several hit singles with that song. There is no doubt that Romeo returned to The Emotions, now recording under Phil Pratt, and founded a new band known as The Hippy Boys. In 1968, Romeo’s career saw its breakthrough when he wrote “Wet Dream”, a song that became a massive hit in Jamaica and one of the biggest hits in the history of music. Although the singer claimed that the song was about a leaking roof, BBC Radio in the UK banned the song due to its overtly sexual lyrics. However, “Wet Dream” did become a Top 10 hit in the UK for six months, where it stayed there for six months in total. In 1969, Max Romeo’s debut album, A Dream, was also released. Other records that came out in 1969 were “Belly Woman”, “Wine Her Goosie”, and “Mini-Skirt Vision”. It was reported that Romeo was banned from performing at several venues during a tour of the UK.