Who was Pluto Shervington? ‘Ram Goat Liver’ singer dies at 73

Pluto Shervington, a Jamaican reggae star based out of Miami, Florida in the US, died at the age of 73 on January 19, 2024 at an undisclosed hospital in the city, according to the singer's representatives. The singer had been admitted to the hospital on January 18, 2024 and died at approximately 11:00 am the following day.

No further details regarding the cause of his death or why he was admitted have been released as of yet.

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Shervington was best known for his work as an Reggae artist but also worked with the Rastafarian movement in his early years, before he moved to Miami in the 1980s.

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Pluto Shervington's career spanned nearly 5 decades

Pluto Shervington started his career in the early 1970s in Jamaica as the vocalist for the showband Tomorrow's Children. The band consisted of Pluto, alongside Ken Lazarus, John Jones, Barry Collins, Cornell Marshall, Steve Bachelor, Garth Gregory, Clive Morris, and Jerome Francisque.

The band had its first major album release with their Tomorrow’s Children Today in 1968, followed by the release of their second album The Going’s Great With Tomorrow’s Children. Both albums were critically well received but failed to make the charts, and the band subsequently disbanded in 1971.

In 1973, the singer took a brief hiatus from singing to produce the single Hooray Festival by Roman Stewart, followed by the 1975 song Midnight Rider by Paul Davidson. The latter peaked at number 10 on the UK album chart.

After the band, the singer wrote his iconic single, Ram Goat Liver, in 1976. The single, inspired by the works of Ernie Smith and Tinga Stewart, peaked at number 40 on the UK singles chart after its release.

Pluto Shervington subsequently released the single, Dat, in the same year. The song, which chronicles the experience of a Rastafarian man trying to sell pork to afford marijuana, was a major chart success, peaking at number 6 on the UK singles chart upon its release.

Soon after his initial solo successes, Pluto Shervington moved to 1977 to Miami and remained based there till his death, achieving regional successes as a live musician. The singer elaborated on his journey as a musician in an exclusive interview with Jambana on July 8, 2014.

"I was in a band in 1960s, Tomorrow's Children and then I had a huge hit in 1976, Ram Goat Liver, and it went on and on from there.Miami is like you've left to make up.. there are a lot of us here. I mean, a lot of, oh, you know, culture and in the eighties i worked at the right side of the ocean at Sunday's on the Bay, which was well known at the time, you know."

The singer continued, elaborating on his experience as a studio engineer:

"It started in the 1970s. I owned and ran a studio and I did mostly jingles, advertisement tunes... I did almost every ad you've heard on the radio for five years. I was also part of the label with Ernie Smith and that's where everything was made."

Pluto Shervington, before his death, continued his links with his island homeland, doing recurring performances in the islands alongside his performances in his adopted home state in the US. Aside from his solo work, the singer collaborated with Little Roy on Roy's 1974 album Tafari Earth Uprising.