DeBarge - WikiHQ

DeBarge was an American musical recording group composed of several members of the DeBarge family. In addition to various solo projects completed by members of the family, DeBarge was active between 1979 and 1989. The group originally consisted of El, Mark, Randy, and Bunny. James joined the group a year later for their 1982 second album. Bobby joined in 1987, following the departures of Bunny and El.

DeBarge released six studio albums, four of them with Motown subsidiary Gordy Records. These albums included The DeBarges (1981), All This Love (1982), In a Special Way (1983), and Rhythm of the Night (1985). The latter became the group's best-selling album and contained the single "Rhythm of the Night", which hit No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it their highest-charting single in America. In the mid-1980s, El and Bunny went solo and DeBarge was subsequently released from its contract.

The remaining members, Mark, Randy and James, now augmented by their eldest brother, Bobby, signed with Stripe Horse Records, an independent label, in 1987, which released their final studio album, Bad Boys. The group continued to perform for an additional two years. Bobby, along with younger sibling, Chico, were arrested for drug trafficking in 1989. Legal issues and personal problems, compounded with the changing musical tastes of the public, led to the group's dispersion in 1989, ten years after its inception.

History

Family background

The DeBarge family are the children of Etterlene DeBarge (née Abney; 1935–2024), an African American and American Indian gospel singer born in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1935 and Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. (1932–2009), a White American soldier of French and English descent born in Cicero, Illinois. They married when Etterlene was 17, a year after the death of her father James Abney, a church choir leader and peanut retailer. Etterlene remembers Robert DeBarge, Sr. as physically and emotionally abusive to her and the children, and said he used her youth, the absence of her father, and continuous pregnancy to control her.

The group hailed from the East Side of Detroit, where the siblings were born and raised; they later relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Members included sister Etterlene ("Bunny") and brothers Mark ("Marty"), William ("Randy"), Eldra ("El"), and James. Younger siblings Jonathan ("Chico"), Darrell ("Young"), and Carol ("Peaches") DeBarge are also singers though not with the group.

Early years of the group and Switch

The siblings who became DeBarge started performing in various groups together in the Detroit, Michigan area in the mid-1970s. In 1979, brothers Randy, Mark, and El were part of the SMASH band, which was a release on Source Records/MCA in the USA/Canada before it was released as Pall Mall Groove Hot Ice in Germany by Polydor. Bernd Lichters, who rented a home in Cerritos, California, bought them instruments, and they were mentored by members of the Motown group Switch, including their elder brothers Tommy and Bobby and co-founding member and family friend Gregory Williams. Bunny DeBarge had joined her younger brothers in 1979 as well, and they formed as The DeBarges in 1980. That year, because of Bobby's success with Switch, younger brother El was able to perform live on the piano and sing for Motown CEO and founder Berry Gordy, who was impressed by the group and agreed to sign them that year.

Following that album's success, DeBarge was handpicked by Luther Vandross to open for him on his "Busy Body Tour" to support his album of the same name.

When the tour ended in late 1984, the group recorded the Diane Warren composition, "Rhythm of the Night", for the soundtrack to the Motown-produced film, Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon from 1985.

Setbacks, solo projects, and some success

Despite the group's highly publicized drug addictions and several members serving jail time for drug offenses, the siblings have continued to perform together occasionally.

In 1991, Randy and James contributed to a gospel album featuring their mother Etterlene and younger siblings Darryl (Young DeBarge) and Carol (Peaches DeBarge), billed as "the DeBarge Family."

Several members of the family made several solo albums during the 1990s and 2000s, but never reached the fame and popularity of their original group.

The DeBarges' story of their rise and fall was documented in late 2008 as the debut episode of the TV One show Unsung.

In 2010 El, after a six-year sabbatical of releasing solo albums, and following a period of drug addiction and several arrests, released the well-received Grammy-nominated album, Second Chance and went on tour in support of R&B singer Mary J. Blige in 2011, but relapsed and went back to drug rehab to address his continuing issues.

In 2011, James, Randy and Bunny appeared on Dr. Drew's Lifechangers to discuss their troubles with drug addiction, later agreeing to attend a rehabilitation facility. While Randy and James left the facility on a follow-up episode, Bunny still attended and told Dr. Drew of her recovery, even performing a gospel song on the show.

Drug abuse has also brought various tragedies and setbacks over the years: Bobby DeBarge died at a hospice in Grand Rapids after contracting AIDS, following years of heroin addiction; Tommy DeBarge, who also suffered from drug addiction, was on kidney dialysis but sometimes performed with surviving members of Switch and with his family up to his death in 2021 from kidney failure; Randy DeBarge and Mark DeBarge are said to have "incurable diseases", according to their mother. James was sentenced to prison for drug offenses.

Musical legacy

The group's musical genre covers soul, boogie, and R&B, drawing inspiration from the family's initial roots in Detroit. The group's material has been either frequently sampled or covered:

Their collaborations with Switch on their recordings, "I Call Your Name" and "My Friend in the Sky" have been sampled as well as their own material, including "I Like It", "Stay with Me" and "A Dream".
Rapper The Notorious B.I.G.'s remix of "One More Chance", which sampled "Stay With Me".
Mary J. Blige, a fan of DeBarge, also sampled and covered their work, including "Share My World" (adding the group's intro ad-libs from that song on her song of the same name), "A Dream" and "Don't Go" (which interpolated the ending of "Stay With Me").
Rapper Tupac Shakur interpolated the melody of "A Dream" for his posthumous hit, "I Ain't Mad at Cha".
R&B group Blackstreet sampled the music of "A Dream" for their hit, "Don't Leave Me", and have said they were big fans of DeBarge (Teddy Riley calling El DeBarge "a living legend" in the liner notes of their 1994 debut album) and had covered "I Like It". On their platinum album Another Level the group did a gospel version of DeBarge's hit "Time Will Reveal". In 1998, Riley also sampled parts of Switch's "My Friend in the Sky" (co-composed by Bobby, Bunny and El) for rapper Queen Pen's album track, "No Hooks" off her My Melody album. (The same song would be sampled in 2005 for Raheem DeVaughn's title track off The Love Experience.)
The melody of "Stay With Me" was revisited by Ashanti on her single, "Foolish" and later by Mariah Carey on her single "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" from E=MC².
In 2007, rapper Rich Boy's hit "Throw Some D's" sampled Switch's "I Call Your Name", which was co-written by Bobby and arranged by Bobby and El.
"I Like It" is their most sampled, with several acts sampling the music or interpolating the song's popular bridge (sung by El and written by Bunny), and "All This Love" has also been covered and sampled frequently by other artists.

Accolades and achievements

In 1984, In A Special Way was nominated for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal in the 26th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

Personnel

Etterlene "Bunny" DeBarge – vocals (1979–1986)
Eldra "El" DeBarge – vocals, piano/keyboards (1979–1986)
Mark "Marty" DeBarge – vocals, drums, percussion, trumpet, saxophone (1979–1989)
William "Randy" DeBarge – vocals, bass guitar (1979–1989)
James DeBarge – vocals, piano/keyboards (1982–1989)
Robert "Bobby" DeBarge Jr. – vocals, piano/keyboards, drums (1987–1989)
Jonathan "Chico" DeBarge – vocals, piano/keyboards (1988–1989)

Discography

The DeBarges (1981)
All This Love (1982)
In a Special Way (1983)
Rhythm of the Night (1985)
Bad Boys (1987)

References

External links

DeBarge biography and updates at Soul Tracks
DeBarge History – The early days
The DeBarge Network
Vibe article "The Rise and Fall of the DeBarge Family" from the October 2007 issue: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4