Today’s version offering is one of those tunes that’s become more popular over the last 20 years than it was at the time of release, so much so that I can’t remember even hearing it when it was issued on Pama Records’s Bullet label back in 1971.

Nora Dean's recording of “Peace Begins Within” has its origins in Mylon LeFevre’s 1970 album Mylon (We Believe), produced by the great Allen Toussaint who skillfully fashioned a pioneering blend of Southern rock and gospel, with more than a touch of funk thrown in for good measure. LeFevre is a Christian rock singer who cut his musical teeth with the family gospel band before recording his first album in 1964. After signing with Columbia in 1970 and going on to work with a host of rock stars – Elton John, Duane Allman, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, The Who, etc – he got hooked on heroin, then cleaned up and returned to his Southern gospel roots. After a heart attack he began preaching and teaching and speaking at a large number of rallies and church services as a minister.

“Peace Begins Within” was quickly covered by singer and pianist Bobby Powell, who had also started his career in gospel groups. After leaving the Louisiana State School for the Blind at Baton Rouge’s Southern University and transferring his talents from the religious to the secular, he scored several R&B hits on the Shreveport based Whit label before moving to Excello in 1973. His version, which was less rocky, even funkier, and thankfully clocked in at a more concise two and a half minutes, is almost certainly the inspiration for Nora Dean’s overlooked classic.

Not that Dean – born Letetia Leonora McLean in 1944 – was unknown in reggae circles, of course. By the time “Peace Begins Within You” was committed to tape, she had sang alongside Rita Marley in The Soulettes and had recorded songs for leading producers such as Coxsone Dodd, Bunny Lee and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. She also sang lead on an early Joe Gibbs production, the notoriously salacious “Wreck A Buddy” (as one of The Soul Sisters), and had found some success as lead singer of The Ebony Sisters with “Let Me Tell You Boy”, a reggae classic recorded for Spanish Town producer Harry Mudie at Studio 1.

Dean had also made an extraordinary tune for the legendary Duke Reid, the haunting, mysterious “Angle LaLa” (issued in the UK as “Ay Ay Ay Ay”), released as a B side to U Roy’s highly influential “Rule The Nation” in 1970. Although regarded at the time as an something of a curiosity, the quirky rhythm, often obscure lyrics and the yearning, sensual performance of “Angle LaLa” have led it to be categorised as psychedelic and/or exotic in some quarters. Her other claim to fame was a bona fide hit, “Barb Wire”, recorded at the Duke’s Treasure Isle studio by his engineer Byron Smith, utilising a two year old rocksteady rhythm (The Techniques’ “You Don’t Care”) and singing lyrics that – although easily misinterpreted in 1970 by young skinheads in the UK – were nevertheless rude and catchy enough to guarantee packed youth club dancefloors.

It’s ironic that “Peace Begins Within”, a radio friendly, straight ahead reggae cover of a soul tune, was probably one of Dean’s least popular recordings at the time of release. It’s a better than competent version of the song, the singer sounds great and the production – courtesy of the famous Dynamic (and ex-Studio 1) engineer Sid Bucknor – is excellent. The rhythm, with the popular ‘creep’ organ shuffle, is solid as a rock, and includes some great work from the horn section.

Judging by its rarity and value in the reggae collector’s market, it just couldn’t rise above the competition and sales were poor. Due to more recent demand from deejays it has now been reissued and continues to fill the floors at reggae revive dances everywhere.

Surprisingly, there don’t seem to have been many other versions. Although there was an organ instrumental on the B side of the original Jamaican single, Sid Bucknor’s rhythm was criminally underused, and apart from being ingeniously sampled for a remix of MC Lyte’s “Cold Rock A Party”, the only other significant cut I know of is the relatively recent cover by Nadia McAnuff and The Sons Of Africa.

Chris Lane is a label boss, writer, producer and selector based in London. Subscribers can read more about his Fashion Records label in Neil Kulkarni’s feature in The Wire 421 via Exact Editions. You can find all of Chris’s previous columns here https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/columns/