Eldra Patrick "El" DeBarge is an American singer-songwriter and was the
focal point and primary lead singer of family group DeBarge throughout the
early to mid-1980s. Popular songs led by El include "Time Will Reveal", "Stay
with Me", "All This Love", and "Rhythm of the Night". As a solo artist, he is
best known for his unique high tenor register, strong falsetto and the hits
"Who's Johnny" and "Love Always" and for his collaborations with Tone Loc, George
Clinton, Quincy Jones, Fourplay, and DJ Quik. DeBarge is a three-time Grammy
nominee. Life and career
= Early life = A native of Detroit, Michigan, El was
the sixth of ten children born to Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. and Etterlene
DeBarge. DeBarge was already singing in his local church choir and playing piano
as a child. Later after his family moved to Grand Rapids, he and the rest of his
family began performing at their uncle's Pentecostal church. When El was
thirteen, his parents divorced after a difficult and stormy marriage. El is of
African American, English, French, and Native American descent. Growing up, he
was closest to eldest brother Bobby and began imitating his brother's vocal
styling. For several years, El spent time being
in private study with music educator Ricky Callier. By 1975, El had begun to
express a desire to become a performer. El became a father for the first time at
sixteen. He would eventually father eleven more children. In 1977, he
dropped out of high school and began performing with his elder brothers in
clubs and venues in Michigan. By 1979, Bernd Lichters was able to secure a deal
with Source Records/MCA to release the Pall Mall Groove – Hot Ice album as
SMASH for the USA/Canada market and moved El from Michigan to Los Angeles,
to have him, his brothers Mark and Randy DeBarge, in addition to their cousin
Andre Abney, Elliot Townsend, and Stanley Hood, to back up the release as
the SMASH band. Eldest sister Bunny joined her brothers in California as
well. In 1980, because of the success of their brothers Bobby and Tommy DeBarge
with the hit group Switch, he was able to perform live at the piano and singing
in front of Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who immediately signed the group, then known
as The DeBarges, to the label. Motown mentored them with members later
working and contributing songwriting, arrangements, and production to the
recordings of Switch, including the 1980 albums This Is My Dream and Reaching for
Tomorrow. El DeBarge's first professional recording was as background
vocalist to Switch's 1979 hit "I Call Your Name". He later helped to arrange
music for several Switch songs including "Love Over and Over Again" and "My
Friend in the Sky," which he, Bunny, and Bobby wrote. This song would later be
sampled by the likes of Queen Pen and Raheem DeVaughn.
= Music career = In 1981, The DeBarges was released after
the family had worked in the studio for a year recording it. The album was noted
for most of its songs produced and written by all four family members
including Bobby DeBarge, who helped end the album track "Queen of My Heart"
after El had led the song for most of its tenure. The following album, 1982's
All This Love featured younger brother James and saw much success with the
compositions "I Like It" and the title track. El would remain the producer and
arranger for all of the group's Motown albums.
In 1983, DeBarge released In a Special Way, which spawned the hits "Time Will
Reveal" and "Love Me in a Special Way", and in 1984, the band became a sensation
while touring for Luther Vandross on the singer's Busy Body tour. Though the
group enjoyed much success and appeared to be a family unit, there were growing
tensions between El and his brothers, mainly because of Motown's push to have
El become the only noted star of the group, repeating a pattern that began
with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. By the end of the tour, El DeBarge was
mainly called to handle the production of DeBarge's next album, Rhythm of the
Night, without much help from his siblings.
Rhythm of the Night became the group's best-selling album ever, though some
contended that El DeBarge was the only member present on the album with the
exception of the title track, which became a top five hit in several
countries including the US and UK becoming the group's and El's signature
song. In late 1985, he appeared on The Facts of Life in the Season 7 episode
"Doo-Wah" as himself and performed his single "You Wear it Well" with Lisa
Whelchel, Kim Fields, Mindy Cohn, and Nancy McKeon singing backup. In 1986, El
DeBarge left the group and began his solo career with the release of his
self-titled debut album, which spawned the hits "Who's Johnny" and "Love
Always". Three years passed, however, until DeBarge released his second album,
Gemini in 1989. The album was a failure. DeBarge's contract with Motown was
terminated in 1990, and he signed with Warner Bros.. In the meantime, DeBarge
was featured on the Quincy Jones single "The Secret Garden", alongside Al B.
Sure!, James Ingram, and Barry White, released in 1990.
In 1992, DeBarge released his third album, the Maurice White-produced In The
Storm, which featured the Chante Moore duet "You Know What I Like", which was
Moore's first professional recording. Critics noted the album for its Marvin
Gaye-styled productions, with El DeBarge later admitting that Gaye was a huge
influence on his musical style. He once commented that he had initially written
"All This Love" as a song he imagined Gaye doing, even imitating Gaye's
ad-libs during his I Want You era near the end. That same year, he had chart
success on the R&B charts with a collaboration with Fourplay on their
version of Gaye's "After the Dance". DeBarge's next album, 1994's Heart, Mind
and Soul, was co-produced with Babyface, yielding modest charted singles such as
"Slide" and "Where is My Love". While DeBarge continued to collaborate
on other artists' projects including brother Chico and rapper DJ Quik among
others, he didn't release any more albums between 1994 and 2009. In 2010,
he finally emerged from a sixteen-year delay with the appropriately titled
Second Chance, released after a series of comeback performances and appearances
including a well received performance at the 2010 BET Awards. The album yielded
two singles, "Second Chance" and the Faith Evans duet "Lay With You", and
later resulted in three Grammy Award nominations: Best Male R&B Vocal
Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Album. He remains the only member of the
DeBarges to have Grammy nominations outside of the group and in the family
altogether. Personal life
El was raised in Detroit and Grand Rapids as a child. El's parents had a
tumultuous marriage that involved domestic abuse and child abuse on the
part of El's father Robert. El has remained mum on his relationship with
his father and many other elements of his family life, later documented in
books written by his mother Etterlene, sister Bunny and brother Tommy.
In 1978, El DeBarge became a father to his first child, a daughter named Adris.
He eventually went on to father twelve children altogether.
El was close to his siblings, particularly his brothers Bobby and
Chico. Bobby DeBarge's death in 1995 had a profound effect on El, family members
later saying he has never fully recovered from Bobby's death. Since
Bobby's death, he has performed several of Bobby's songs with Switch onstage,
sometimes with Chico DeBarge singing along. El and several DeBarge brothers
reunited in 1998 performing several DeBarge classics.
= Legal problems and drug addiction = In 2001 he was arrested for cocaine
possession and was given probation. In 2006 he was arrested again for
possession of a controlled substance and was once again given probation. In 2007
he was arrested in a domestic dispute and was held without bail. The charges
were later dropped. Later that year he was arrested yet again and charged with
cocaine possession and given probation again. However, he was once again
arrested in 2008 for possession of crack and drug paraphernalia, breaking the
terms of his probation. For this violation he was immediately sentenced
to two years in state prison in California.
El has had a history of drug abuse. He stated that his addiction started after
he began receiving prescription medication for toothache pain after
having a tooth pulled by a dentist. Up until then, El DeBarge had not used
drugs, unlike his siblings who began to abuse drugs during the tenure of the
group. By the mid-1990s, El had become addicted, and his addiction resulted in
his career faltering after its peaks in the 1980s. Following a prison sentence
in which he served 13 months, El announced that he had found sobriety
after an addiction that he said had lasted nearly 25 years, stating he had
also acknowledged his problems with the law in the past.
In 2010, he released Second Chance, his first album in 16 years. The project
received critical acclaim, earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B
Album. However, in February 2011, while
promoting Second Chance, DeBarge's label announced that the singer was canceling
all public dates and appearances as he went back to rehab following a relapse.
DeBarge has since returned to work and made an appearance at the 54th Grammy
Awards in February 2012. As of June 2015, El DeBarge is still
touring. Discography
= Studio albums = = Compilation albums =
= Singles = = Featured singles =
See also List of number-one dance hits
List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References External links
Official website "El DeBarge Official Twitter".