As leader of the Ethiopians harmony group, the singer Leonard Dillon, who has died of cancer aged 68, scored an impressive number of hit singles during the 1960s and 70s, and was one of the first Jamaican performers to tour widely in Britain. He was also one of the few solo singers to have Bob Marley’s harmony vocals grace his work.

Born in Boundbrook, a small community on the outskirts of the northern coastal town of Port Antonio, Dillon was raised mostly by his Seventh Day Adventist grandparents. Since his grandfather was the choirmaster in the church, and his mother gave private music lessons, it seems the family was musically inclined, and Dillon soon heeded his calling; while still attending high school in Port Antonio, he performed with a local band called the Playboys (later known as Ray and the Gladiators), the melodic quality of his voice earning him the moniker Sparrow.

At the age of 18, Dillon moved to the Jamaican capital, Kingston, in search of employment, lodging in a minute dwelling in the western slum of Back-O-Wall. In 1963, he travelled to Florida to undertake seasonal farm work, and upon returning to Jamaica the following year met Peter Tosh, one of the Wailers, who took note of Dillon’s obvious talent.

Tosh introduced Dillon to his bandmates, Marley and Bunny Wailer, and an audition was arranged for Dillon at Studio One. The resultant recording session yielded four songs, with Dillon credited as “Jack Sparrow”. On three of these, including the underground favourite Ice Water, he was backed by the Wailers; the fourth, Woman Wine and Money, was harmonised by Delroy Wilson.

As the Wailers were too focused on their own careers to provide much further assistance, Dillon soon decided to form his own harmony group with Stephen Taylor and Aston Morrison, aspiring singers he met while working as a mason. They returned to Studio One, where its founder, Clement Dodd, christened the group the Ethiopians. They quickly cut four songs, including the popular I’m Gonna Take Over Now, but a lack of ready finance caused Morrison to quit.

Dillon and Taylor found a financial backer in the building contractor Leebert Robinson. Their self-produced singles Train to Skaville, The Whip and Cool It Amigo were all sizable hits in 1967, and the duo undertook a UK tour the following year, after Train to Skaville inched into the top 40. Upon returning to Jamaica, the group temporarily added Melvin Reid to their ranks for a handful of recordings for Federal Records. Then, a duo again, they scored a huge hit with Engine 54, working with the Trinidadian immigrant Garnet Hargreaves.

Their most solid partnership was forged with the producer Carl “Sir JJ” Johnson, and yielded a series of hits in 1969-70, including Feel the Spirit, Woman Capture Man, Hong Kong Flu and Everything Crash (the latter two songs recorded with the noted session band the Caribbeats). Further work for producers such as Alvin Ranglin and Derrick Harriott evidenced a high standard, as did collaborations with Lee “Scratch” Perry, whose Black Ark studio Dillon helped to construct in 1973.

After the death of Taylor in a road accident in 1975, Dillon formed a new version of the Ethiopians for the 1977 album Slave Call. Thereafter he recorded only sporadically, as a solo artist. His late 1970s material for Studio One was particularly noteworthy, while his 1986 album Dread Prophecy, backed by the Gladiators band, and issued by the US-based Nighthawk label, was also above average.

He is survived by seven children, seven grandchildren, two brothers and a sister.

• Leonard Dillon, singer and songwriter, born 9 December 1942; died 28 September 2011