Alex Henderson

Billy Ocean
Billy Ocean  [Expanded Edition)

In the United States, Billy Ocean is best known for his 1984 smash “Caribbean Queen” and his album Suddenly—which sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. alone. “Caribbean Queen,” in addition to reaching #6 pop in the UK, soared to #1 on no less than three of Billboard’s singles charts in the U.S.: R&B, dance/club and the Billboard Hot 100. But while Suddenly did a lot to increase Ocean’s popularity in North America, he was a star in the UK eight years before that.

Born Leslie Sebastian Charles in Fyzabad, Trinidad and Tobago on January 21, 1950, Ocean moved to London as a child and went on to record some obscure UK singles in the early 1970s (including 1971’s “Nashville Rain” and 1972’s “Reach Out a Hand”) before signing with GTO Records in 1975 and recording this self-titled debut album—which was originally released in 1976 and boasted the infectious single “Love Really Hurts Without You,” a #2 pop smash in the UK (in the U.S., the song wasn’t a chartbuster but reached #22 pop in Billboard). And this album spawned some other British singles as well, including the energetic “Stop Me (If You’ve Heard It All Before)”—which was a #12 pop hit in the UK—and the #19 UK pop hit “L.O.D. (Love on Delivery).”

Billy Ocean, which was produced by London-based songwriter Ben Findon, illustrates Ocean’s talents as not only a vocalist, but also, as a songwriter: Ocean co-wrote most of the material, from exuberant soul-pop grooves such as “Tell Him to Move Over,” “One Kiss Away,” “Soul Rock,” “Whose Little Girl Are You?” and the Motown-flavored “Let’s Put Our Emotions in Motion” to the ballad “Let’s Do It All Again.” Findon co-wrote many of the songs, and British songwriter Mike Myers (known for writing hits for the Dooleys, the Nolan Sisters and other 1970s and 1980s pop stars) co-wrote the slow jam “Hungry for Love” and “Let’s Do It All Again” as well as “Stop Me (If You’ve Heard It All Before).”

Two years after the release of Billy Ocean, GTO Records (a British label launched in 1974) was acquired by CBS Records (now Sony Music). GTO helped Ocean gain a lot of British fans in the late 1970s, and in 1981, the funky “Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)” reached #7 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart in the U.S. and became his biggest American single prior to “Caribbean Queen.” But it wasn’t until after Ocean signed with Zomba Music/Jive Records in 1983 that he became as popular in the U.S. (where his Zomba/Jive releases were distributed by Arista Records) as he had been in Great Britain.  

Interviewed in November 2014, Myers (who now lives in Portugal) reflected on the way Ocean was marketed at GTO in the late 1970s compared to the way he was marketed at Zomba/Jive beginning in 1983. Myers, discussing Ocean’s GTO output, observes: “The material and productions were appreciated more by audiences in Europe than in the U.S.—and although every effort was made for them to ‘sound American,’ it didn’t quite happen. This could also be partly due to the licensing, distribution and promotion setup in the U.S. of GTO Records, although I can’t really confirm this. It wasn’t until Billy split with his producer and GTO Records was absorbed by (CBS) that things started to change. The (CBS) relationship didn’t quite work, and Billy was unsigned for a brief period. Billy’s eventual move to Zomba Music/Jive Records made all the difference. Billy was encouraged by Clive Calder, (CEO) of the Zomba Group, to spend time in the U.S. Billy flourished, and the production and writing teams of Wayne Braithwaite & Barry Eastmond and Keith Diamond & Mutt Lange made Billy’s breakthrough into the U.S. possible.”

Myers continues: “1975/1976 was just the beginning for Billy. I was recording with him and asked him what the principal difference was, for him, in singing other people’s songs (compared) to his own songs. He said it was much harder to sing his own songs—it was a process of self-discovery. There were so many places you could take the melody, whereas with other composers’ songs, Billy was more or less just copying a writer’s demo. So between the late 1970s and 1980s, he was finding himself both as a writer, co-writer and performer. By the early to mid-1980s, he had grown. And apart from his writing becoming more soulful—leaning more towards R&B and a little less pop—he had developed a style that was more mature and more his own. Co-writing and working with Mutt Lange and spending more time in the U.S. also made a huge difference to Billy.”

Looking back, Myers theorized that one of the things that made this album sound organic was the fact that Ocean didn’t strain himself in an effort to sound American—he simply sounded like Billy Ocean. “The problem for me was that at the time, British R&B always sounded like a copy of what was being made across the pond—just not as good,” Myers asserts. “I think Billy Ocean still sounded British to the Americans. He didn’t try to sound like anyone else, whereas most people in the UK thought he was American. So I guess it worked because he was not trying to beat the Americans at their own game.”

Myers remembers that Ocean was delighted when, in the early 1980s, he received high praise from none other than Quincy Jones. “Billy was at an awards dinner in the U.S.,” Myers recalls. “He was sitting with luminaries like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, who was producing Michael Jackson at the time. Quincy leaned forward and whispered to Billy, ‘For me, you’re the best singer in the world.’ I would say this is a testament to any singer, especially coming from someone like Quincy Jones.”

Ocean, now 64, has had a long and productive career. But it was Billy Ocean that first made him a star in the UK, and he has clearly lived up to the promise he showed 38 years ago on this engaging debut.

—Alex Henderson, November 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Salon.com, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to the popular Allmusic.com website and The All Music Guide’s series of music reference books.