Jimmy Somerville

Jimmy Somerville, 2006

James William "Jimmy" Somerville (born June 22, 1961 in Glasgow , Scotland ) is a British pop singer . He became known in the 1980s as the singer of the bands Bronski Beat (1984–1985) and The Communards (1985–1988), later he embarked on a solo career.

Life

The song Smalltown Boy , Somerville's first hit with Bronski Beat , stayed in the German charts for over 30 weeks . Chart placements with Why , It Ain't Necessarily So and the medley I Feel Love / Love to Love You Baby / Johnny Remember Me followed . After separating from Bronski Beat, Somerville continued his career as a singer for the duo The Communards . The biggest hits with this formation are, among other successes, the cover versions of the 1970s titles Don't Leave Me This Way by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and Never Can Say Goodbye by The Jackson Five . Above all, his extraordinary falsetto singing gave the dance and synth pop of the groups a special recognition value . The texts primarily dealt with homosexuality , often in a sensitive exploration of the physical side, and with the isolation and rejection of the younger generation of gays in rural areas, which very often forces them to leave their hometowns.

Somerville has been a soloist since 1989. The single Comment te dire adieu was released in October 1989 and placed in the charts in Germany and Great Britain . The second release from the gold award-winning album Read My Lips , You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) , a cover version of the 1978 hit by disco singer Sylvester , hit the charts in Germany and England in early 1990. The song, which peaked at number 5 in the UK, is Somerville's most successful solo single. The album's title track, Read My Lips (Enough Is Enough) , also made it into the charts in the spring of 1990.

With the cover version of the Bee Gees song To Love Somebody , the harbinger of the album The Singles Collection 1984/1990 , on which the greatest hits from the time with Bronski Beat and The Communards can be heard, the career continued in November of that year Somervilles gone. The song was as successful as You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) , and was even placed in Austria and Switzerland . The album was in the top 10 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Great Britain, was awarded a gold record in Germany and a platinum record in Switzerland. Other songs on the album, which found their way into the charts in 1991, are new versions of the Bronski beat singles Smalltown Boy and Run from Love .

It wasn't until 1995 that a new studio album hit stores, titled Dare to Love . The song Heartbeat , which was released in January, was in the lower chart area in Germany and placed in the top 25 in the United Kingdom. In the Billboard Dance Charts (Hot Dance Music / Club Play), the song became a surprise hit and reached the top position. The follow-up single Hurt so Good is Somerville's last top 20 hit at home.

Since then, the breaks between his albums have always been at least five years. Manage the Damage from 1999 could no longer build on the old successes. It wasn't until 2004 that he released a new single called It's So Good . In Germany Somerville joined concerts of Rosenstolz in the opening act on. In 2005, after several postponements, the album Home Again was released , which also includes a version of the song But Not Tonight by Depeche Mode . With the release Ain't No Mountain High Enough , a new version of the 1967 hit by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, a single Somervilles was listed in the German charts for the last time.

Other albums are Suddenly Last Summer (2009), which was also released as a limited digipak with DVD, and Homage (2015).

Discography

See also : Bronski Beat  and The Communards

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1989	Read My Lips	DE29 (18 weeks) DE	-	-	UK29 gold (14 weeks)UK	US192 (2 weeks) US	First published: November 27, 1989 Producers: Avril Mackintosh, Jess-E, Pascal Gabriel, Stephen Hague
1995	Dare to love	DE79 (5 weeks) DE	-	CH45 (3 weeks) CH	UK38 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 12, 1995 Producers: Chuck Norman, Gary Wilkinson, Stephen Hague
2005	Home Again	DE48 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: November 23, 2004 Producers: Felix J. Gauder, Milan Sajé, Stefan Fornaro, Tillmann Uhrmacher , Peter Plate , Ulf Leo Sommer, Paul Mac, John Winfield, Andrea Remondini, Mauro Picotto , Jam El Mar , Cet Merlin

More studio albums

• 1999: Manage the Damage (release: June 14th)
• 2009: Suddenly Last Summer (release: May 19th)
• 2015: Homage (release: March 9th)

Live albums

• 2016: Live and Acoustic at Stella Polaris (limited; recording: August 2nd, 2015, Stella Polaris Festival, Denmark; release: July 29th)

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1990	The Singles Collection 1984/1990	DE4th gold (50 weeks)DE	AT10 (13 weeks) AT	CH4th platinum (25 weeks)CH	UK4 (26 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 12, 1990 Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards
2001	The very best of	DE49 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK29 gold (5 weeks)UK	-	First published: September 3, 2001 Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards

More compilations

• 1990: Greatest Hits (EP)
• 1991: Jimmy Somerville
• 2000: Root Beer (release: August 8th)
• 2009: For a Friend: The Best Of (Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards; 2 CDs; release: June)
• 2014: Dance & Desire: Rarities & Videos (Jimmy Somerville, Bronski Beat and The Communards; 2 CDs + DVD; release: November 17th)
• 2016: Club Homage (release: April 29th)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	Dance
1989	Comment te dire adieu Read My Lips	DE25 (15 weeks) DE	-	-	UK14 (9 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: October 30, 1989 with June Miles-Kingston; french Text: Serge Gainsbourg Authors: Arnold Goland, Jack Gold Original: Margaret Whiting - It Hurts to Say Goodbye , 1966
1990	You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) Read My Lips	DE22 (13 weeks) DE	-	-	UK5 (9 weeks) UK	US87 (4 weeks) US	Dance34 (5 weeks) Dance	First published: January 1, 1990 Authors: James Wirrick, Sylvester James Original: Sylvester , 1978
	Read My Lips (Enough Is Enough) Read My Lips	DE57 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK26 (6 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: March 5, 1990 Author: Jimmy Somerville
	To Love Somebody The Singles Collection 1984/1990	DE20 (30 weeks) DE	AT5 (16 weeks) AT	CH11 (14 weeks) CH	UK8 (11 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: October 22, 1990 Authors: Robin Gibb , Barry Gibb Original: Bee Gees , 1967
1991	Smalltown Boy (1991 Remix) The Singles Collection 1984/1990	DE28 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK32 (4 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: January 21, 1991 with Bronski Beat (Original 1984), Remix: Stephen Hague Authors: Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek, Steve Bronski
	Run from Love The Singles Collection 1984/1990	DE98 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK52 (2 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: July 29, 1991 Authors: Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek, Steve Bronski Original: Bronski Beat , 1985
1995	Heartbeat Dare to Love	DE54 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK24 (4 weeks) UK	-	Dance1 (13 weeks) Dance	First published: January 16, 1995 Authors: Jimmy Somerville, Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard
	Hurt so good dare to love	DE69 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK15 (6 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: May 15, 1995 Author: Phillip Mitchell Original: Katie Love & the Four Shades of Black, 1971
	By Your Side Dare to Love	-	-	-	UK41 (2 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: October 16, 1995 Authors: Jimmy Somerville, Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard
1997	safe	-	-	-	-	-	Dance39 (4 weeks) Dance	First published: August 1997 Remixes: Todd Terry , DJ Tonka Authors: Gary Butcher, Jimmy Somerville
	Dark Sky Manage the Damage	-	-	-	UK66 (1 week) UK	-	-	First published: September 1, 1997 Authors: Jimmy Somerville, Sally Herbert
1999	Something to Live For Manage the Damage	DE100 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-	-	First published: May 1999 Authors: Ed Monaghan, Jimmy Somerville, Sally Herbert
2005	Ain't No Mountain High Enough Home Again	DE88 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	-	First published: February 2005 Authors: Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson Original: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell , 1967

More singles

• 1988: The Last Infanta ( Uno with Jimmy Somerville)
• 1993: Coming
• 1996: Star ( The Weather Girls feat. Jimmy Somerville)
• 1999: Lay Down
• 2000: Why (Almighty 2000 Mixes)
• 2001: Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
• 2004: It's so good
• 2004: Come On
• 2007: You & Me (Blue Ray feat. Jimmy Somerville)
• 2010: Bright Thing
• 2011: Momentum (EP)
• 2012: Solent (EP)
• 2014: Travesty
• 2014: Back to Me
• 2015: Lights Are Shining
• 2015: Learned to Talk
• 2016: Lovers Unlimited (with John Winfield)
• 2016: Don't Leave Me This Way - Live & Acoustic at Stella Polaris

Awards

• RSH-Gold , 1991: Category “Kraftrille des Jahres” - Song: To Love Somebody

Web links

Commons : Jimmy Somerville  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)
• Jimmy Somerville at Allmusic (English)
• Jimmy Somerville at Discogs (English)
• Literature by and about Jimmy Somerville in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jimmy Somerville in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• What is Jimmy Somerville doing? The Scot with the falsetto voice , interview with Martin Sonnleitner in Stern , No. 36, September 4, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles Albums DE UK US1 US2
2. ↑ ^{a b c} gold / platinum databases: DE CH UK