The death of Jamaican singer-songwriter Ernie Smith on April 16, at age 80, has reignited one of reggae’s most troubling unresolved disputes over  ownership, and millions in unpaid royalties. At the centre of it all is Tears On My Pillow, a song widely associated with US singer Johnny Nash. However, Smith's longtime confidante and legal advisor, New York-based attorney Merrick Dammar, said that the song, originally written by Smith and titled I Can't Take It, was never properly compensated.

Now, with both Smith and Nash dead, the question lingers, how much is still owed to Ernie Smith for penning I Can't Take It and will his estate ever collect a cent?The story begins in the late 1960s with a deeply personal composition that Smith titled I Can’t Take It.

“It was written as a goodbye and as a lamenting song to his mother,” Dammar explained. “His mother was sickly … and the song evolved.”