Bitty Mclean
Walk away from love Bitty Mclean
Delroy Easton McLean was born in Birmingham in August 1972. As the youngest of six children, he was so small at birth that the nickname “Bitty” was given to him and it stuck for good.
Raised by Jamaican parents, his early life was entirely soundtracked by his father’s booming sound system. The musical diet in the McLean household was rich and diverse: American soul legends like Nat King Cole and The Clovers played back-to-back with Jamaican icons such as Jackie Edwards, John Holt, Bob Marley, Burning Spear, and Justin Hinds. That wasn’t just background noise; it was simply what played at home.
A Sound System Education
Rather than just passively listening, Bitty and his brother took an active interest in the music. As kids, they would sing over dub plates and instrumental riddims, actively working out those classic vocal styles themselves.
By the early eighties, dancehall had taken over the scene, bringing acts like Little John, Barrington Levy, Sugar Minott, and Black Uhuru to the forefront. Inspired by this new wave, a teenage McLean was already out performing on Birmingham’s local sound systems, honing his craft live.
The UB40 Breakthrough
When it was time to leave school, Bitty’s passion for music led him to enroll in a sound engineering course at a local college. It turned out to be a life changing decision.
His lecturer, Alan Caves, had previously worked with the legendary reggae pop band UB40. Recognizing Bitty’s talent, Caves put him forward for a job as a tape operator at the band’s DEP International Studio.
What started as a job running tape turned into something much bigger.
McLean ended up co producing, playing, and singing on Promises and Lies, the 1993 UB40 album that went on to sell more than eight million copies worldwide. Not a bad leap for someone who started at the bottom of the studio ladder.
The Story Behind “Walk Away From Love”
One of the standout tracks from McLean’s repertoire is “Walk Away From Love.” However, the song boasts a rich history long before Bitty made it his own.
The Original: David Ruffin, the former powerhouse lead singer of the Temptations, cut the original version for Motown in 1975.
The Masterminds: It was written by Charles Kipps and produced by Van McCoy.
The Success: The track became Ruffin’s only number-one R&B hit, crossing over to number nine on the US pop charts and reaching the UK top ten.
By the time Ruffin’s version hit the airwaves, McLean was just a three-year-old in Birmingham neither of them knowing how their musical paths would eventually cross. Before Bitty ever stepped up to the mic to record it, other legendary vocalists had already taken their own run at the classic, including reggae great Ken Boothe in the seventies and Mike Anthony in the nineties.
