Wayne Wonder’s ‘No Holding Back’ Turns 20
It’s been 20 years since the release of Wayne Wonder’s Grammy-nominated album No Holding Back, which is nearing the Gold certification milestone in the United States.
As of March 2023, the album has sold and streamed the equivalent of 471,000 units in the US, Billboard’s sales tracker Luminate told DancehallMag. This includes 326,000 copies of traditional album sales.
Released on March 4, 2003, No Holding Back was Wayne’s 11th studio album, and is his only album to date to have charted in the United States, where it peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200, and the United Kingdom where it peaked at No. 40 on the UK Albums chart.
It also earned the artist his only Grammy Award nomination for Best Reggae Album in 2004.
The album, which was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry in the year of its release, was the catalyst behind the former Penthouse Records artist’s career taking off globally, when VP Records put it out in partnership with Atlantic Records, along with the single No Letting Go.
The No Letting Go single, which inspired the album’s name, dominated Urban and Pop radio in the United States, ascending to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
It also peaked at No. 3 on the UK Singles chart, and was a Top 40 hit in Canada and European countries such as Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Produced by Steven ‘Lenky’ Marsden on his Diwali riddim, No Letting Go had copped a MOBO Award in the UK, three BMI Urban awards, a live performance on NBC Television’s Saturday Night Live, and was certified Gold in the United Kingdom for sales exceeding 400,000 units in 2020.
In August last year, VP Records presented Wayne Wonder with a Gold Plaque for No Letting Go at the Central Park Summer Stage concert, after the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for reaching the 500,000 unit sales mark in the United States.
“The song was just coming from a personal life experience,” Wonder told DancehallMag on the day of its US certification.
“Coming from a special place and special person in my life, so in writing the lyrics, I just switched into that mode. I wrote the song in New York, and told Lenky that I wanted the song to have chord and bridge and when he put it together and we heard it, we knew it was something special.”
Besides the successful lead track, No Holding Back consisted of songs such as Saddest Day, Bounce Along, Crazy Feeling, a collab with Elephant Man, Just Another Day, and Slowly But Surely. In addition to Lenky, other producers on the album were Tony “CD” Kelly, Craig “Leftseide” Parks, Mathew “Esco” Thompson, and Donovan Germain.
Wayne Wonder, who was born in Buff Bay in Portland, sang in Sunday school as a child.
The Camperdown High School old boy began songwriting at age 13, and got his major career break when he was given a regular weekly slot with the Metro Media sound system in Allman Town in Kingston.
In a Penthouse interview in 2020, Wayne had pointed out that before he began recording, he was singing on sound systems such as Youth High Power, Qulitex, Ovation, Big R, and Metro Media, where he served as official singer.
Wayne is known for other Dancehall classics such as Keep Them Coming, Searching, Bashment Girl, Joy Ride, and Everyone’s Calling Your Name.
According to his biography on Spotify, Wayne’s career officially took off when he met influential producer and record company owner King Tubby.
In the interview with Penthouse Records, Wayne said he was introduced to King Tubby by Singing Melody. He had also explained that he was still in school when King Tubby recorded his first song Never Gonna Give You Up, a cover of Rick Astley’s mega-hit song, back in early 1988.
After Tubby was murdered, Wayne reconnected with his childhood schoolmate and record producer Dave “Rude Boy” Kelly, a recording engineer at Penthouse Records.
Together the two produced a string of hits including, Saddest Day, Talk About, Live and Learn, Excess Amount, Glamour Girl, Sweet and Sour, Bashment Girl, Rainbow and Warm Jamaican Christmas. They also recorded cover versions of American pop tunes such as Fast Car and Anything for You.
Wayne also teamed up with Buju Banton and co-wrote some of the deejay’s hit songs, including Murderer, Deportee, and Boom Bye Bye.