Billy Ocean

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Billy Ocean live in New York (1988)

Billy Ocean , actually Leslie Sebastian Charles , (born January 21, 1950 in Fyzabad , Trinidad and Tobago ) is a British pop singer and songwriter who had a number of R&B hits between 1976 and 1989 . Ocean was successful not only in the UK, but also in Germany , Austria , Switzerland and the USA , where he had a total of three number one hits .

biography

Ocean was born in what was then the British colony of Trinidad . When he was seven, his family moved to London in the East End . As a teenager he sang in London clubs. He released his first single in 1974 under the pseudonym Scorched Earth. He took his stage name Billy Ocean, which was named after his then home, the Ocean Estate.

In the spring of 1976 his debut album Billy Ocean came out. The single, Love Really Hurts without You , reached number two in the UK charts and number 22 in the US . More hits followed, including LOD (Love on Delivery) . Ocean also wrote pieces for other performers, such as La Toya Jackson . In the summer of 1981 he had a hit in the American R&B charts with Nights (Feel Like Getting Down) .

Billy Ocean (2012)

Ocean celebrated its greatest success in the summer of 1984 with Caribbean Queen from the album Suddenly . Depending on the world region, the title was adapted so that the song is also known as the African Queen or European Queen . The album Love Zone , released in early 1986, was also commercially successful, as were the singles When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going (from the film: On the Hunt for the Jewel of the Nile ) and There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry ) were hits.

In early 1988, the album Tear Down These Walls followed with the hit Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car .

His greatest hits album was released in the fall of 1989 . After that, things got quieter for Billy Ocean. His last studio album with Jive was Time to Move On in the spring of 1993, which he recorded with R&B singer R. Kelly . Kelly admired Billy Ocean for the way he could mix the emotional soul side with a poppy rhythm.

In 2002 Ocean received an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster . In the following years old hits were re-released and he toured the UK.

In early 2009 the album Because I Love You was released. In October 2010 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards .

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US R&B R&B
1981 Nights (Feel Like Getting Down) - - - - US152 (3 weeks)
US 		R&B27 (13 weeks)
R&B
First published: June 1981
Producers: Ken Gold, Nigel Martinez
1982 Inner feelings - - - - - R&B53 (5 weeks)
R&B
First published: July 1982
Producers: Billy Ocean, Nigel Martinez
1984 Suddenly DE43 (14 weeks)
DE 		- - UK9
gold
gold

(59 weeks)UK 		US9
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(86 weeks)US 		R&B3 (70 weeks)
R&B
First published: July 1984
Producer: Keith Diamond
1986 Love zone DE33 (7 weeks)
DE 		- CH16 (5 weeks)
CH 		UK2
gold
gold

(32 weeks)UK 		US6th
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(48 weeks)US 		R&B1 (43 weeks)
R&B
First published: May 1986
Producers: Barry Eastmond, Wayne Brathwaite
1988 Tear Down These Walls DE17 (13 weeks)
DE 		AT28 (4 weeks)
AT 		CH10 (10 weeks)
CH 		UK3
gold
gold

(13 weeks)UK 		US18th
platinum
platinum

(31 weeks)US 		R&B7 (35 weeks)
R&B
First published: March 1988
Producers: Robert John Lange ,
Barry Eastmond, Wayne Brathwaite

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

  • 1976: Billy Ocean
  • 1980: City Limit
  • 1993: Time to Move On
  • 2008: Because I Love You
  • 2013: Here You Are
  • 2020: One World

swell

  1. ^ A b Prato, Greg: Billy Ocean - Biography . In http://www.allmusic.com/ . February 14, 2011
  2. ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums DE UK US
  3. ↑ NN: Billy Ocean: Caribbean King . http://www.bluesandsoul.com . February 14, 2011
  4. ↑ NN: Billy Ocean 1st UK Tour in 15 Years! . In http://www.ticketline.co.uk/ ( October 17, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive ). February 14, 2011
  5. ↑ NN: Billy Ocean given honorary degree . http://www.breakingnews.ie/ . February 14, 2011
  6. ↑ picture on http://www.flickr.com/ . February 14, 2011
  7. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .

Web links

Commons : Billy Ocean  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Ocean, Billy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Charles, Leslie Sebastian (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Fyzabad , Trinidad and Tobago