Billy Ocean (born Leslie Sebastian Charles, 21 January 1950, Fyzabad, Trinidad
[ Biography on his official website] [ All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008]) is a UK-based popular music performer who had a string of rhythm and blues-tinged international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the top British-based R&B singer / songwriter of the 1980s.
He waited seven years after scoring his first four UK top 20 hits, before accumulating an impressive run of transatlantic successes, including three U.S. number ones.
Biography
He was born in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago to Grenadian parents, and moved to England with his family at the age of eight.
In his teenage years, he sang regularly in London clubs.
[ All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008] He also worked as a tailor in London's Savile Row as a teenager.
[ Musicianguide.com biography - accessed January 2008] He released his first single in 1972 on Spark Records as Les Charles.
By 1975 he adopted the name Billy Ocean, taking the surname from the 'Ocean Estate' where he lived in East London. The following year, 1976, was when he recorded his debut album,
Billy Ocean, with its first single release, "Love Really Hurts Without You," charting at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart and number 22 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. More hits followed, including as "L.O.D. (Love On Delivery)". He also wrote songs for other artists such as LaToya Jackson.
[ All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008] In 1981 he hit the U.S. R&B chart with "Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)".
Ocean's period of greatest success began with
Suddenly in 1984 and its main single "Caribbean Queen". The song's title and lyrics were changed for different regions, such that the song is also known as "African Queen" or "European Queen". The song won Ocean the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1985 Grammy Awards. The album's title track also became a hit, and the song "Loverboy" from the album was the background music for the first scene of the popular UK BBC One TV series,
Casualty, in 1986.
Ocean appeared at Live Aid in 1985, singing "Caribbean Queen" and "Loverboy", from the JFK Stadium, Philadelphia.
His 1986 album
Love Zone also sold well. It included the hit singles "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" (the theme from the film
The Jewel of the Nile, this was a number one hit in the UK and a number two in the U.S.; and "There'll Be Sad Songs " (a U.S. number one, and also a major UK hit).
In February 1986, Ocean's video of "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" was banned by the BBC, due to non-union members (including Michael Douglas and Danny De Vito) miming to backing vocals.
Ocean's next album,
Tear Down These Walls (1988) featured another number one single, "Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car", whilst the album was certified platinum.
[ All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008]Though his popularity has been proven with consistently strong record sales, Ocean is not without his critics, some of whom take issue with Ocean's tendency to write his songs according to a pop formula. "Billy Ocean's voice is no more innocuous, and no more distinctive, for that matter, than that of Freddie Jackson, James Ingram or Jeffrey Osborne", writes Rolling Stone's Rob Hoerburger. "The reason Ocean's had more pop success than the others seems to have been his uncanny ability to recycle past hits. "Caribbean Queen" was merely a dressed-down "Billie Jean"; "Loverboy" just a bit less than "Urgent"; and "Suddenly" an echo of "Hello". Familiarity, it seems, breeds the Top Ten".
His later albums, such as
Time to Move On,
Love is For Ever (also known as
L.I.F.E.) and
Showdown, failed to spawn hits, but his 1989
Greatest Hits collection has been a steady seller over the years. Ocean's last studio album for Jive was
Time to Move On, which he recorded in Chicago with R&B star R. Kelly. It turned out that R. Kelly had been a long-time admirer of the way Ocean was able to mix the more emotive soul style with a crossover pop vibe.
[ Ticketline.co website mini-biography]In 2002, the University of Westminster awarded Ocean an honorary doctorate of music.
[ Whatever Happened To (weht.net) - accessed January 2008] The awards ceremony took place in the Barbican Centre, in London.
[ TCM Breaking News @archives.tcm.ie] He continues to tour and record in Europe. He lives in Sunningdale, Berkshire with his wife of 27 years, Judy; and their three children Cherie, Antony and Rachel. Ocean is now a patron for Tech Music Schools in London
[ Retroland.com biography - accessed January 2008], made up of Drumtech, Vocaltech and Guitar-X. He regularly visits to hold clinics and seminars for the students.
In October 2007, Ocean commenced his first British tour for over 15 years.
[ Manchestereveningnews.co.uk article] In February and March 2008 he is scheduled to tour Australia and the Far East.
[ Audience.uk.com tour information]
Contemporary influence
- Hip-hop artist Big Boi of OutKast uses the name 'Billy Ocean' as an alias, a reference to the performer.
- Hip-hop artists Ying Yang Twins say "Skeet so much they call her Billy Ocean" in the song "Salt Shaker".
- Hip-hop artist Warren G mentions the name 'Billy Ocean' in the song "Super Soul Sis".
- Hip-hop artist Ill Bill uses 'Billy Ocean' as an alias in a Hiphopgame.com freestyle.
- Episode 60 of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is titled "Billy Ocean".
- He has been referenced on The CW Television Network's TV series, Everybody Hates Chris. Chris' sister Tonya idolizes Ocean and credits him as inventing the Moonwalk (and not Michael Jackson).
- "Red Light Spells Danger" was performed on Top Gear of the Pops, a Comic Relief special of the BBC Television motoring show Top Gear. It featured presenters Jeremy Clarkson on the drums, Richard Hammond on the bass and James May on the keyboard. Former lead singer of The Darkness, Justin Hawkins, guest starred on vocals.
- In Scrubs J.D., when listening to Billy Ocean whilst wheeling his scooter in one episode says "Ah Billy. After the Arctic and the Pacific, you're my favourite ocean!"
Discography
Albums
- Billy Ocean (GTO 1976)
- City Limit (GTO 1980)
- Nights (Feel Like Getting Down) (Epic Records 1981) #152 U.S.
- Inner Feelings (Epic 1982)
- Suddenly (Jive Records 1984) #9 UK, #9 U.S.
- Love Zone (Jive 1986) #2 UK, #6 U.S.
- Tear Down These Walls (Jive 1988) #3 UK, #18 U.S.
- Greatest Hits (Jive 1989) #4 UK, #77 U.S.
- Time to Move On (Jive 1993)
- L.I.F.E. (Love is For Ever) (Jive 1997) (Double album compilation of 'Greatest Hits') #7 UK
- Emotions in Motion (Time Music International 2002)
- On The Run (Planet Media 2003)
- Let's Get Back Together (Jive 2003) #69 UK
- The Ultimate Collection (Jive 2004) #28 UK
- Showdown (Jive 2004)
- Can You Feel It (K-tel 2005) (available exclusively on Apple's iTunes Music Store)
- YBC! (Jixxtaposition Records 2007)
Singles
See also
- List of number-one singles
- List of number-one hits
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100
- List of number-one dance hits
- List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
- List of Euro disco artists
- List of Eastern Caribbean people
Ocean penned songs recorded by other artists
[ All Music Guide biography - accessed January 2008]
- "Are You Ready?" - La Toya Jackson
- "Love Is a Dangerous Game" - Millie Jackson
- "Love Is" - Randy Crawford
- "Taking Chances" - Ray, Goodman & Brown
- "Waiting For You" - Boyzone
- "Whatever Turns You On" - The Dells
- "Who's Gonna Rock You" - The Nolans
References
External links
1950 birthsLiving peopleMale singersRhythm and blues musiciansTrinidadian musiciansBritish musiciansDance musiciansGrammy Award winners
Billy OceanBilly OceanBilly OceanBilly OceanBilly Ocean?????????Billy Ocean????? ?????Billy OceanBilly Ocean
