Robin Beck
Robin Beck (born November 7, 1954 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is an American rock singer whose music can be almost exclusively assigned to the AOR area. She is married to James Christian , the lead singer of the band House of Lords .
Career
Beginnings
Born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants, Robin Beck moved to Daytona Beach , Florida at a young age , where she was discovered by a local musician named Alex London. This put them in touch with the locally known Johnny Conklin. During this time the singer tried her hand at various bands in the area and trained her voice to the standards of the Great American Songbook . She received her first record deal after an appearance in a Detroit club - the unsuccessful single Still in Love followed shortly thereafter. In 1979 she released her first album Sweet Talk on Mercury Records - today a collector's rarity. The work, which was held in the disco style that was popular at the time, contained the title song, a first respectable success for Beck. The later stars Luther Vandross and Irene Cara were hired as background singers .
After that Beck was in great demand as a background singer. She has worked on productions by Humble Pie ( Go for the Throat , 1981), Melissa Manchester ( Hey Ricky , 1982; Emergency , 1983) and Leo Sayer ( World Radio , 1982). Even David Bowie and Chaka Khan booked the singer. In an interview, Beck particularly highlighted her work with Patti Austin , which she booked as a background singer for the 1990 album Love Is Gonna Getcha .
Breakthrough and greatest success
In 1988 Beck got the offer to sing the song First Time for a Coca-Cola commercial. The song was so popular that at the end of the same year it was decided to release First Time as a single. The song was extremely successful in Europe and climbed to number 1 in the singles charts in Great Britain , Germany , Switzerland and the Netherlands . Beck then recorded a second album, which was released in 1989 under the title Trouble or Nothin ' worldwide. With Save Up All Your Tears and Tears in the Rain (1989) the work contained two singles that sold well and hit the charts, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Such was Save Up All Your Tears , both in Germany and in Switzerland, a top 10 success. In contrast, these recordings flopped in both the US and the UK. While it was always unknown in America, it was able to achieve the status of a one-hit wonder in Great Britain .
The remarkable thing about the album Trouble or Nothin ' is recorded by other singers, the fact that many of the songs included: 1989 Beck sang in the background on the album Heart of Stone of Cher . Then she recorded Save Up All Your Tears for her album Love Hurts (1991). As a single she was able to land a medium chart success worldwide. The original is, however, with Bonnie Tyler , who recorded the song for her album Hide Your Heart in 1988. There is another song with the title track , which was also recorded for Beck's album Trouble or Nothin ' . The hard rock group Kiss , whose singer Paul Stanley wrote the title with Desmond Child and Holly Knight, had a small hit with it. A few years later, Tears in the Rain was to become a hit again, at least in Germany and Switzerland - this time in the version by Jennifer Rush. Other songs such as If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man) (Original: Bonnie Tyler, 1986) and Don't Lose Any Sleep (other versions: John Waite , Starship ) were also made famous by other artists. The main reasons for these numerous recordings are likely to be the two very successful songwriters Desmond Child and Diane Warren , who both Beck and the other artists mentioned regularly provided with songs. Desmond Child also produced Trouble or Nothin ' .
Further career and comeback
Beck could never really build on the success of First Time . Several years passed before she released a third album, Human Instinct (1992). Decoupled from this, she was able to reach number 55 in the German single charts with In My Heart to Stay . In addition, the album was not a success. Two years later Warner released the Can't Get Off CD . It contains Close to You , a song that was previously heard in a German version in a McDonald’s advertisement . While the English version offers a classic love text, a version tailored to the food at McDonald's was developed for the advertising ("Simply good, at McDonald's it's just good ..."). Close to You reached a modest place 79 in the German charts as the last single to date.
After that, things calmed down around Beck. Her musical career fell into the sidelines, although she released singles every now and then. In 1997 she became the mother of a daughter named Olivia. The father of the child and Beck's husband is the famous American hard rock singer James Christian. In 1999 the singles Jewel appeared in My Crown and Shut Up and Kiss Me , both of which flopped. She also recorded duets with Stan Bush , Pupo and Dan Lucas .
In 2004 she released another album - Wonderland , a commercial flop. Do You Miss Me followed in 2005 on the small independent label Frontiers. It was thus present on the music market again, at least in Europe, but without leaving any major commercial traces. The rocky mainstream work musically followed on from Trouble or Nothin ' . Desmond Child and Dianne Warren were also represented with songs again. On July 6, 2007 the album Livin 'on a Dream followed , which musically also offers melodic and rocky food.
Only with two new recordings of her greatest hit First Time did she make a smaller comeback in the charts - at least in some parts of Europe: In 2003 the dance project Unique recorded a new version of First Time , which hit the charts in Switzerland, for example ( 61st place). In 2006, the Sunblock project followed, for which Beck once again captured her greatest success. The success was much greater, because this time the single reached the top 10 in Great Britain and Finland.
In 2009 Beck re-released the album Trouble or Nothing as a 20th Anniversary Edition . It was a new production of the entire album. It contains the completely newly recorded original songs from the album (new vocals, new music) and four new compositions.
In February 2011 Beck's album The Great Escape was released with 11 songs, including a duet ( That All Depends ) with Joe Lynn Turner and another ( Till the End of Time ) with her husband, James Christian, who also made the album has produced. Rocks magazine wrote about the album that it was "the most convincing work on album distance since Trouble or Nothin '" .
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
|||
| 1989 | Trouble or notin ' |
DE18 (23 weeks) DE |
- |
CH16 (6 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: October 1989
Producers: Desmond Child , Gavin Spencer |
| 1992 | Human instinct | - |
AT23 (3 weeks) AT |
- | - |
First published: July 1992
Producer: Susan Hamilton |
more albums
- 1979: Sweet Talk
- 1994: Can't Get Off
- 2004: Wonderland
- 2005: Do You Miss Me
- 2007: Livin 'on a Dream
- 2009: Trouble or Nothin '- 20th Anniversary Edition (newly produced plus 4 additional titles; release: February 6th)
- 2011: The Great Escape
- 2013: Underneath
- 2017: Love is Coming
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
|||
| 1988 |
First Time Trouble or Nothin ' |
DE1  (23 weeks)DE |
AT1 (12 weeks) AT |
CH1  (21 weeks)CH |
UK1  (14 weeks)UK |
First published: July 1988
|
| 1989 | Save Up All Your Tears Trouble or Nothin ' |
DE10 (15 weeks) DE |
AT27 (4 weeks) AT |
CH5 (12 weeks) CH |
UK84 (2 weeks) UK |
First published: February 1989
|
| Tears in the Rain Trouble or Nothin ' |
DE22 (19 weeks) DE |
- |
CH21 (4 weeks) CH |
- |
First published: September 1989
|
|
| 1992 | In My Heart to Stay Human Instinct |
DE55 (14 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
First published: November 1992
|
| 1994 | Close to You Can't Get Off |
DE79 (5 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
First published: November 1994
|
| 2003 | First time |
- | - |
CH61 (5 weeks) CH |
- |
First release: April 2003
Unique feat. Robin Beck; with remixes by DJs @ Work |
| 2006 | First time I'll be ready |
- | - | - |
UK9 (13 weeks) UK |
First release: May 2006
Sunblock feat. Robin Beck |
more singles
|
|
Awards
- 1990
swell
- ↑ robinbeck.com Official biography
- ↑ robinbeck.com album info "Sweet Talk"
- ↑ allmusic.com credits
- ↑ RockIsLife.com Interview 2005 ( Memento from November 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ hitparade.ch various chart archives
- ↑ everyhit.com UK charts
- ↑ Julian Gill: The Kiss Album Focus - Hell Or High Water (1983-1996) kissfaq.com 2010; ISBN 978-098225370-0
- ↑ hitparade.ch author information Desmond Child
- ↑ robinbeck.com Official discography
- ↑ hitparade.ch various chart archives
- ↑ ROCKS - The magazine for classic rock; Issue 02/2011, page 98
- ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums UK
- ↑ a b gold / platinum databases: DE CH UK
Web links
- Official website
- Robin Beck at Allmusic (English)
- Robin Beck at Discogs (English)
- Singles Discography on 45cat.com
- Discography on rateyourmusic.com
- chartsurfer.de
- officialcharts.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Beck, Robin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American rock singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 7, 1954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brooklyn , New York City |