Rockwell (musician)

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Rockwell (* 15. March 1964 in Detroit , Michigan , USA as Kennedy William Gordy ) is an American R & B singer. He is the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. , whose record label he was also under contract.

Life

According to official announcements, Rockwell signed his contract with Motown without his father's knowledge in order to avoid accusations of nepotism . For this reason he also uses the stage name "Rockwell", which was the name of his former school band.

In the spring of 1984 he landed his first and only big hit with the self-written song Somebody's Watching Me . He was supported by his childhood friends Michael and Jermaine Jackson , who sang the chorus . Somebody's Watching Me made it to number 2 in the pop charts in Germany and the USA, and in the R&B charts it was even number 1 for 5 weeks. His second song Obscene Phone Caller was only moderately successful, however, and Rockwell ended after two more albums who only received attention in the R&B sector, his career as a musician.

Cover versions of Somebody's Watching Me

  • In 1992 DJ Bobo rewrote the song Somebody's Watching Me to Somebody Dance With Me and landed his first hit
  • The Finnish band Warmen released a cover version of Somebody's Watching Me in 2005
  • In 2006 there was a remix by the Dutch band, Beatfreakz
  • On the 2008 album Wasteland Discotheque by the band Raunchy they also cover the song
  • In 2009, the American producer and remixer duo Mysto & Pizzi released a remake as a promotional song on behalf of the Geico car insurance company

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Somebody's Watching Me
  DE 38 04/16/1984 (9 weeks)
  CH 20th 04/22/1984 (4 weeks)
  UK 52 02/25/1984 (5 weeks)
  US 15th March 31, 1984 (30 weeks)
Captured
  US 120 March 16, 1985 (9 weeks)
Singles
Somebody's Watching Me
  DE 2 03/19/1984 (15 weeks)
  AT 14th 05/15/1984 (2 weeks)
  CH 3 04/08/1984 (12 weeks)
  UK 6th 02/04/1984 (11 weeks)
  US 2 01/28/1984 (19 weeks)
Obscene Phone Caller
  DE 53 06/25/1984 (6 weeks)
  UK 79 04/07/1984 (2 weeks)
  US 35 05/05/1984 (14 weeks)
Taxman
  UK 88 08/18/1984 (3 weeks)

Albums

  • 01.1984: Somebody's Watching Me
  • 02.1985: Captured
  • 06.1986: The Genie

Singles

  • 01.1984: Somebody's Watching Me (with Michael and Jermaine Jackson )
  • 03.1984: Obscene Phone Caller
  • 05.1984: Foreign Country
  • 08.1984: Taxman
  • 02.1985: He's A Cobra
  • 04.1985: Peeping Tom
  • 07.1985: Tokyo
  • 06.1986: Carmé
  • 09/1986: Grow Up

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rockwell at Allmusic (English)
  2. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
personal data
SURNAME Rockwell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordy, Kennedy William (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American R&B singer
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan , USA