DEBARGE

During the production of the SWITCH II album I met two younger brothers of Bobby and Tommy DeBarge, Mark and Randy DeBarge. They let me knew they had a whole lot of talent. Their oldest sister, Bunny was singing like a beautiful song bird, and young El DeBarge was tearing down the Bethel Pentecostal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan with the church organ and his amazing voice. I was introduced to Logan H. Westbrooks who just started his record label Source Records, manufactured and distributed by MCA. I made a deal with him. I got Randy and Mark DeBarge, together with cousins Stanley Hood and Andre Abney.

I was flying El DeBarge in from Michigan to Los Angeles and later Bunny, leased a 5 bedroom home in Cerritos, California, took the guys to the Guitar Center in Hollywood to buy instruments to make them a real band. Mark his flugelhorn, Randy his bass, El his Rhodes 88 keys suitecase electric piano and the Hohner clavinet, Stanley his sax and Andre his drumset. After the LP release of SMASH on Source Records in 1979, Motown got into the act. In 1980 DeBarge signed with Motown. Their hit "Rhythm Of The Night", written by Grammy Award winning songwriter Diane Warren, was a top ten hit around the world in the mid 80´s. Songs written by DeBarge, "I Like It", "A Dream", "Stay With Me", "All This Love" were and are presently been covered or sampled by other artists in Soul, Jazz and Hip Hop. Their musically influenced producers Teddy Riley and Babyface, artists like Mary J. Blidge, The Jets and latin act Menudo (most noticeable member Ricky Martin).

In Essence: 1984 Gregory Williams called me from New York to ask me to look out for Chico DeBarge and his talent. I was able to start his carreer in partnership with Ed Wright´s Global Entertainment. In 1985 Chico DeBarge signed under our direction with Motown.

On August 16, 1995 Bobby DeBarge passed.

Albums Released:

• DEBARGE - MOTOWN: THE DEBARGES 1981, ALL THIS LOVE 1982, IN A SPECIAL WAY 1983, RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT 1985, CD: GREATEST HITS 1991, CD: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION 1997, THE 20TH CENTURY MASTERS - THE MILLENNIUM COLLECTION 2000, STRIPED HORSE RECORDS: BAD BOYS 1987
• THE DEBARGE FAMILY - TM RECORDS: BACK ON TRACK 1991
• EL DEBARGE - MOTOWN: EL DEBARGE 1986, GEMINI 1989, WARNER BROTHERS: IN THE STORM 1991 ,HEART, MIND AND SOUL 1994
• BUNNY DEBARGE - MOTOWN: IN LOVE 1987
• BOBBY DEBARGE - A & E RECORDS: IT´S NOT OVER 1995
• CHICO DEBARGE - MOTOWN: CHICO DEBARGE 1986, KISS SERIOUS 1987, UNIVERSAL RECORDS: LONG TIME NO SEE 1998, MOTOWN/UNIVERSAL: THE GAME 1999