Paul
Parker
Here's
what I know about Mr. Parker. He was born in San Francisco
and his first brush with fame outside of that city was when
he hooked up with legendary producer Patrick Cowley. "Right
On Target" (the first release on Cowley's label Megatone)
reached No. 1 on Billboards Magazine's Dance Chart in 1982.
Their initial recording work together was with The Patrick
Cowley Singers (Jo-Lo) on "Lift Off" for Cowley's
1981 "Megatron Man" album. Cowley, like a modern
day Phil Spector, realized the potential of all three singers
and began work on a solo project for Parker and eventually
Jo Carol Block and Lauren Carter.
In early 1983 Megatone Records released the second Paul
Parker 12" single "Shot In The Night." The
dark, moody, uptempo number was an instant hit and led the
way for his April 1983 album "Too Much To Dream."
By the time of the album release Patrick Cowley had succumbed
to A.I.D.S. and had Parker not been so talented his career
might have ended there.
Prior to his demise Cowley had canned quite a bit of material,
perhaps sensing his impending fate, he recorded the entire
Parker album, tracks with Loverde, Sarah Dash, Jo-Lo, more
material with Sylvester and a complete album of his own.
On Patrick's last album Parker sings the lead track of "Tech-No-Logical
World" with masculine fervor as well as contributing
his voice to several other of the albums tracks. One forgets
that Paul and Patrick had literally changed the landscape
of club music in the early 1980's.
In the black-hole of 1980-1982 club records were either
top 40 or R&B based. But with the team of Cowley and
Parker they brought the "hi-energy" sound into
the mainstream and onto the dance floors. Parker, with his
dashing good looks and gay-teen idol appeal transcended
that to become an important recording artist of the 1980's
club scene. In September 1983 while touring in the U.K.
Paul was introduced to Ian Anthony Stephens. Stephens was
one of dance music's most exciting producers, having just
come off of a major hit with Hazell Dean's "Searching."
This encounter led to Ian travelling to San Francisco to
work on a number of recording projects. Most notably Paul's
follow up 12" singles and work with Lisa and Marianna.
The first 12" of this new musical reunion was the ultra
high energy "Desire." Once again Paul's macho
vocals and full throated phrasing took dance music to a
new level. The song had to compete with an import 12"
single of "Love's On The Line" from his Cowley
produced album, but both found their way to the top of most
club charts. 1986, his affiliation with Megatone over in
1983 with Cowley's passing, found him searching for a new
domestic label. Appearing on several club dates with Pamala
Stanley led to a friendship and mutual desire to record
together. Pamala had already signed a deal with TSR Records
and his next release would be two duets with her on that
label. "Stranger In A Strange Land" and "Running
In Circles" were both excellent songs and showed a
great deal of promise for their teaming. However the songs
couldn't match either of their solo successes.
His next release was "Don't Play With Fire" on
the Fantasia label. Since subsequent releases for Lisa,
Parker, and Marianna were also on that label leads one to
the speculation that either Stephens or Parker or both had
ownership or controlling interests in the label. His next
release was a highly-taunted cover of the Cyndi Lauper classic
"Time After Time." This formed a basis for his
later recording of cover versions. The 1986 release was
a bold move for Parker who had heretofore not been known
as a remake artist. His next American release was a collaboration
with Man Parrish on 1987's "One Look" for Dice
Records, the results were less than stunning. Parker struck
gold again with a remake of Giorgio Moroders "From
Here To Eternity" but outside of the club scene he
wasn't having much luck charting. So Parker's next release
was the 1993 cover of Chris Isaac's "Wicked Game."
Another song one would have never pictured as a disco hit.
"Wicked Game" was released on the fabulous ZYX
Record label where Parker made his home for the next several
releases. He followed that with "With Or Without You"
the title track from his second album release. And then
he rebounded with yet another remake, a 1995 cover of the
Doors classic "Riders On The Storm." Both 12"
singles were nice-sized hits here in the U.S. but even more
popular abroad.
His success abroad led to his signing with the U.K. label
Klone Records. His string of hits for Klone Records included:
"Can U Feel Love Coming," "I Finally Found
Someone" and "One More Hurt." The last two
selections were duets with Angie Gold and mark the last
known recordings of Paul sometime around 1996-1998. Since
then he seems to have disappeared from the musical landscape.
If anyone has more updated info on Mr. Parker let us know.
Till then thank you Paul for sharing your talents with us
Periodo |
Enero-Febrero |
|
|
Artista |
Paul
Parker |
Tema |
Desire |
Formato/Calidad |
.mp3/128bits/s |
Duración |
7:32 |
Tamaño |
7,0
Mb |
Bajar |
|