Desmond Child

Desmond Child in appearance on February 16, 2019

Desmond Child , actually John Charles Barrett (born  October 28, 1953 in Gainesville , Florida ) is an American composer and producer.

Life

Desmond Child was born in Gainesville, Florida and grew up in Miami. His father, Baron Sándor Márfi, came from Hungary and his mother, Elena Casals, came from Cuba . His mother taught him to play the piano at an early age. In high school, Child formed his first band. He studied music at Dade Community College in Miami . He then continued his studies in New York and finished it with a degree in composition and harmony. In 2010 he signed an exclusive publishing contract with the Universal Music Publishing Group.

Child as a musician

In 1977 he founded the band Desmond Child and Rouge together with Myriam Valle, Maria Vidal (today: Maria Elena Fernandez-Vidal), and Diana Grasselli, with whom he recorded two albums for Capitol Records ( Desmond Child & Rouge and Runners in the Night ) , both of which appeared in 1979. On the album Desmond Child & Rouge was the song The Fight , which he had written together with Paul Stanley , frontman of the band KISS . The album received positive reviews but did not achieve any significant sales. However, it contained the title Our Love Is Insane , which made it to number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 . The fact that the follow-up album, Runners in the Night , was not a sales success, led Child to split up in 1980.

Child composed the kiss hit I Was Made for Lovin 'You together with Stanley and producer Vini Poncia in 1979 and, after his band split up, concentrated on writing, composing and producing songs for other musicians and bands . Paul Stanley recommended Child to Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora , who wrote their first big hit, You Give Love a Bad Name , with him .

To date, he has composed well over four hundred songs, many of which have become big hits. He wrote pieces for Cher , Robbie Williams , Iggy Pop , Bonnie Tyler , Michael Bolton , Joan Jett , Aerosmith , Bon Jovi , Alice Cooper , Hanson , Ricky Martin , The Rasmus , Jennifer Rush , Katy Perry and Tokio Hotel , among others .

In 1991 Desmond Child recorded the solo album Discipline , on which he sang the duet Obsession with his former colleague from Rouge's times, Maria Vidal , and Myriam Valle was also involved in the recordings for the album as a background singer. In addition, Discipline included his own version of The Price of Lovin 'You , which the German group Bonfire had released in 1989 on their album Point Blank . For Discipline , Child hired many well-known musicians who supported him with songwriting and recording. He wrote three tracks with Diane Warren , Obsession with Burt Bacharach . Musicians on Discipline included Richie Sambora, Steve Lukather , Tico Torres , Vivian Campbell , Joan Jett and Tony Levin , among others .

Two singles were released, namely Love on a Rooftop (40th place on the Billboard Hot 100 ) and You're The Story of My Life (74th place on the Billboard Hot 100). Both singles fell off the charts the week after their release. The album reached number 19 on the Billboard - Adult-Contemporary - chart , but Discipline was a financial flop.

Child released the album Desmond Child Live in October 2019 , which mainly contains his interpretation of the hits written by other artists. He was supported by Justin Benlolo ( You Give Love a Bad Name , How can We Be Lovers, I Was Made for Lovin 'You ), Lena Hall ( I Hate Myself for Loving You ) and Tabitha Fair. For the song Love on a Rooftop , the three female members of his former band Rouge, Myriam Valle, Maria Vidal and Diana Grasselli, joined him on stage.

In August 2020 he released the song Viva La Diva .

honors and awards

• El Premio Award - Song Of The Year "La Copa De La Vida" / "The Cup Of Life" Official World Cup Song 1998
• El Premio Award - Song Of The Year "Livin 'La Vida Loca" 1999
• Grammy nomination - Song of the Year "Livin 'La Vida Loca" 2000
• Grammy nomination - Record of the Year "Livin 'La Vida Loca" 2000
• Grammy nomination - Best Pop Album, Ricky Martin 2000
• NARAS Florida Chapter Heroes Award 2000
• Latin Grammy Award - Rock Album of the Year Alejandra Guzman 2001
• Emmy Award nomination for "Everyone Matters" The Muppets 2003
• TAXI Lifetime Achievement Award 2004
• Miami Beach High Wall Of Fame (with Barbara Walters, Mickey Rouke, Andy Garcia)
• Songwriters Hall of Fame nomination 2007
• Induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (June 19, 2008)
• Elected to the Board of Directors of the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Our Love Is Insane (with blush)   US 51 March 24, 1979 (11 weeks) Love on a rooftop   US 40 08/17/1991 (12 weeks) You're the Story of My Life   US 74 10/26/1991 (6 weeks)

Desmond Child & Rouge

• 1979: Desmond Child & Rouge ; Capitol Records
• 1979: Runners In The Night ; Capitol Records

solo

• 1991: Discipline
• 2019: Desmond Child Live

For and with other musicians

year	Band / artist	Written, co-written and (co-) produced pieces	album
1979	Kiss	I Was Made for Lovin 'You	Dynasty
1984	Kiss	Heaven's on Fire , Under the Gun , I've Had Enough (Into the Fire)	Animalize
1985	Kiss	King of the Mountain , Who Wants to Be Lonely , I'm Alive , Radar for Love , UH! All night	Asylum
1986	Bon Jovi	Livin 'on a Prayer , You Give Love a Bad Name , Without Love	Slippery When Wet
1986	Bonnie Tyler	If You Were a Woman and I Was a Man , Lovers Again	Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire
1987	Aerosmith	Angel , Dude (Looks Like a Lady) , Heart's Done Time	Permanent Vacation
1987	Jimmy Barnes	Waitin 'for the Heartache , Walk on	Freight Train Heart
1987	Kiss	Bang Bang You , My Way , Reason to Live	Crazy Nights
1987	Jennifer Rush	Down to You , Heart Wars	Heart Over Mind
1988	Kiss	Let's Put The X In Sex , (You Make Me) Rock Hard	Smashes, Thrashes & Hits
1988	Bon Jovi	Bad Medicine , Blood on Blood , Born to Be My Baby , Wild is the Wind	New Jersey
1988	Bonnie Tyler	Notes from America , Hide Your Heart , also produced the album	Hide your heart
1988	Joan Jett & The Blackhearts	I Hate Myself for Loving You	Up your alley
1989	Aerosmith	What It Takes , FINE	Pump
1989	Alice Cooper	complete album, u. a. Poison	trash
1989	Animotion	Calling It Love	Room to Move
1989	Michael Bolton	How Can We Be Lovers? and Love Cuts Deep , also produced the album	Soul provider
1989	Bonfire	The Price of Loving You	Point blank
1989	Bonfire	Sword and Stone	Shocker - The Music
1989	Cher	Just Like Jesse James , Emotional Fire , Does Anybody Really Fall in Love Anymore?	Heart of Stone
1989	Ace Frehley	Hide your heart	Trouble walkin '
1989	Kiss	Hide Your Heart , You Love Me to Hate You	Hot in the shade
1990	Rat	Givin 'Yourself Away , Heads I Win, Tails You Lose , Lovin You's a Dirty Job , One Step Away , Shame Shame Shame	Detonator
1991	Kane Roberts	full album	Saints and Sinners
1991	Cher	Save Up All Your Tears	Love hurts
1991	Alice Cooper	Dangerous Tonight	Hey stoopid
1991	Desmond Child	full album; Co-production: Sir Arthur Payson	Discipline
1992	Bon Jovi	I'll Sleep When I'm Dead , Keep the Faith ,	Keep the Faith
1993	Aerosmith	Crazy , Flesh	Get a grip
1993	Shakira	Tú Serás la Historia de Mi Vida	Peligro
1993	Steve Vai	In My Dreams With You	Sex & Religion
1995	Bon Jovi	Something for the Pain , This Ain't a Love Song , Hearts Breaking Even , Diamond Ring	These Days
1995	Roxette	You don't understand me	Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!
1997	Aerosmith	Hole in My Soul	Nine lives
1997	Dream theater	You Not Me	Falling into Infinity
1997	Hanson	Weird	Middle of Nowhere
1998	Billie Myers	Kiss the Rain	Growing, pains
1999	Bon Jovi	Real life	EDtv original motion picture soundtrack
1999	Ricky Martin	Livin 'La Vida Loca , The Cup of Life	Ricky Martin
2000	Bon Jovi	One wild night	Crush
2000	Ricky Martin	She bangs	Sound Loaded
2002	Bon Jovi	All About Lovin 'You , Misunderstood , The Distance	Bounce
2002	Sakis Rouvas	Ola Kala , The Light , Disco Girl , also produced the album	Ola Kala
2003	Clay Aiken	Invisible , run to me	Measure of a Man
2003	La Ley	Más Allá	Libertad
2004	Jesse McCartney	Because you live	Beautiful soul
2004	Diana DeGarmo	Dreams	Blue skies
2005	Bon Jovi	Bells of Freedom , Dirty Little Secret	Have a nice day
2005	Vince Neil	Promise Me	-
2006	Meat loaf	The Monster Is Loose , Blind as a Bat , Monstro , Alive , If God Could Talk , What About Love?	Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
2006	Paul Stanley	All About You , Lift , Live to Win , Wake Up Screaming , Where Angels Dare	Live to Win
2007	Mika	Erase	Life in Cartoon Motion
2007	Sebastian Bach	Falling Into You	Angel Down
2007	Bon Jovi	(You Want To) Make a Memory	Lost Highway
2007	Scorpions	Hour I	Humanity - Hour I.
2008	Ace Young	Addicted , A Hard Hand to Hold , Where Will You Go , How You Gonna Spend You Live , The Girl That Got Away , Dirty Mind , The Gift	Ace Young
2008	Katy Perry	Waking Up in Vegas	One of the boys
2008	The Rasmus	Livin 'in a World Without You	Black Roses
2009	Bon Jovi	Brokenpromiseland , Fast Cars , Happy Now , Learn to Love	The Circle
2009	Margaret Cho	I Cho Am a Woman	-
2009	Tokio Hotel	Zoom / Zoom into Me	Humanoid
2009	The Stunners	Santa Bring My Soldier Home	(Santa Bring My Soldier Home single)
2010	Tokio Hotel and Kerli	Strange	Almost Alice
2011	Tom Beck	The Longing	-
2011	Alice Cooper	I am made of you	Welcome 2 My Nightmare
2013	Bonnie Tyler	Believe in Me , Stubborn	Rocks and Honey
2015	Zedd	Beautiful Now	True Colors

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography on Starpulse.com
2. ↑ Information on sleazeroxx.com
3. ↑ biography on allmusic.com
4. ↑ Chart history for Childs' singles
5. ↑ Chart info on allmusic.com
6. ↑ Childs entry on the website songwritershalloffame.org ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Entry on songhall.org
8. ↑ Charts US

Web links

• Official Website of Desmond Child (English)
• Desmond Child in the Internet Movie Database (English)