Pablo Cruise is an American pop/rock band from San Francisco currently composed of David Jenkins (guitar and vocals), Cory Lerios (keyboards and vocals), Steve Price (drums), Larry Antonino (bass and vocals), and Robbie Wyckoff (vocals and percussion). Formed in 1973, the band released seven studio albums over the next decade, during which time five singles reached the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100. The group underwent several personnel changes and split up in 1986. The original lineup—Jenkins, Lerios, Price and Bud Cockrell—reunited briefly in 2004, and the group continues to tour today with three out of the original four members present.
History
Pablo Cruise began in San Francisco in 1973 with former members of Stoneground (Cory Lerios on keyboards and vocals, David Jenkins as vocalist and on guitar and Steve Price on drums) and It's a Beautiful Day (Bud Cockrell on bass and vocals). Lerios had formed a band, Together, while at Palo Alto High School. His classmate Steve Price signed on as a roadie (because he owned a van), then joined the group on drums when their drummer left. They were eventually to find their way into Stoneground, where they were joined by Jenkins (originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan).
Initially, many fans assumed that Pablo Cruise was the name of one of the members of the band. When asked the question, the band, which is a quartet, would answer, "He's the guy in the middle." When asked what Pablo Cruise meant, the band would say that "Pablo represents an honest, real, down-to-earth individual and Cruise depicts his fun-loving and easygoing attitude towards life." Casey Kasem claimed that the band's name originated with a drifter.
With the help of their new manager, Bob Brown (who would later steer Huey Lewis and the News to stardom), the band signed to A&M Records and released its first album in May 1975, a minor success self-titled Pablo Cruise, and their second album in March 1976, titled Lifeline. Their second album achieved slightly greater success than their first but still only managed to chart at No. 139 in the United States. The instrumental "Zero to Sixty in Five" from Lifeline was used as theme music for various sports television shows. That success encouraged the band to try their hand at more film and TV scoring.
1977's A Place in the Sun was the turning point in the band's career as they finally entered the mainstream music scene with hit singles "Whatcha Gonna Do?" (No. 6)
Further success and lineup changes
In the middle of 1977, Bud Cockrell left to form a duo with his wife and former It's a Beautiful Day bandmate Pattie Santos and was replaced by Bruce Day (who had played in a band with Carlos Santana before his Santana days). It also featured a cover of Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen's hit single "I Go to Rio" and the follow-up album was 1979's Part of the Game that spawned the hit "I Want You Tonight".
Jenkins moved on to join country rockers Southern Pacific in 1987, alongside former Doobie Brothers members Keith Knudsen and John McFee and Creedence Clearwater Revival bass player Stu Cook. After leaving Southern Pacific in 1989, Jenkins relocated to Hawaii where he was introduced to Hawaiian artist Kapono Beamer and began writing music with him. This eventually led to their album Cruisin' On Hawaiian Time (2006), a collection of songs dedicated to the Hawaiian Islands.
In the meantime, Cory Lerios worked on movie and television scores, providing the music for the popular 1990s series Baywatch, among many others.
1996 partial reunion
Around 1996, Jenkins and Cockrell reunited once again as Pablo Cruise, but Lerios and Price were unable to rejoin at the time. Keyboardist Kincaid Miller and drummer Kevin Wells (ex-Clover) were brought in to replace them, and percussionist James Henry also appeared with the band as an occasional special guest from 1999 to 2008. Additionally, second guitarist Kenny Emerson (replacing Stef Burns, who had briefly returned to the band in 1998) and two additional backup singers, Regina Espinoza and Carolyn, were also recruited (from 1999 to 2002) for added stage attraction. Drummer Billy Johnson (ex-Santana) frequently sat in for Wells during this same time.
Former bassist Bruce Day died on June 30, 1999, in Windsor, California, from unknown causes at the age of 48.
2004 to present
In June 2004 all four original Pablo members were back together playing again at Steve Price's wedding. This led to three of the four—Jenkins, Lerios and Price—deciding to reconvene permanently. Cockrell was not involved this time and George Gabriel joined on bass and vocals. During his time away from Pablo Cruise, Price went on to become a leading figure in providing E-learning and also formed his own aerial photography company. Gabriel left Pablo Cruise in November 2009 and was replaced by veteran bassist Larry Antonino (who has worked with Air Supply, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Laws and many others) in 2010.
Bud Cockrell died on March 6, 2010, after complications from diabetes. He was 59.
On November 8, 2011 Pablo Cruise released their first live album, It's Good to Be Live, on the Red Recording label. The package included both a live CD and DVD. The live performances were taken from concerts performed at the Blue Goose in Loomis, CA on July 9 and 10, 2010. The CD also featured new versions of their songs "A Place in the Sun" (featuring fellow Red Recording artist Katrina) and "Love Will Find a Way" (with Ty Taylor of Vintage Trouble).
In 2015 Cory Lerios released an EP, If I Could Change Anything It Would Be You!, under the name Cory Charles.
In 2017 the band was joined by singer/percussionist Robbie Wyckoff who had appeared with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters on his The Wall Live tour.
In February 2020 the band finished the Rock and Romance Cruise, which turned out to be their final shows for 2020. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the band worked on a new single, "Breathe", via Skype, with new drummer Sergio Gonzalez in place of Steve Price, who had retired from the group due to health issues.
The band resumed playing shows in the summer of 2021 and continues to tour, mainly in and around California.
In November of 2025 it was announced that drummer and founding member Steve Price had rejoined Pablo Cruise.
Band members
Current members
- David Jenkins – guitar, vocals (1973–1986, 1996–present)
- Cory Lerios – keyboards, synthesizers, vocals (1973–1986, 2004–present)
- Steve Price – drums, percussion (1973–1981, 2004–2020, 2025-present)
- Larry Antonino – bass, vocals (2010–present)
- Robbie Wyckoff – percussion, vocals (2017–present)
Past members
- Bud Cockrell – bass, vocals (1973–1977, 1985–1986, 1996–2004; died 2010)
- Bruce Day – bass, vocals (1977–1980; died 1999)
- John Pierce – bass, vocals (1980–1984)
- Angelo Rossi – guitar, vocals (1980–1983)
- Donny Baldwin – drums, percussion (1981–1982)
- David Perper – drums, percussion (1982–1984)
- Stef Birnbaum – guitar, vocals (1983–1984, 1998) (aka Stef Burns)
- Jorge Bermudez - vocals, percussion (1983–1984)
- Kincaid Miller - keyboards (1996–2004)
- Kevin Wells - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1996–2004)
- James Henry - percussion (touring substitute 1999–2008)
- Billy Johnson - drums, percussion (touring substitute 1999-2002)
- Kenny Emerson - guitar, vocals (1999-2002)
- Regina Espinoza - backup vocals (1999-2002)
- Carolyn - backup vocals (1999-2002)
- George Gabriel – bass, vocals (2004–2009)
- Sergio Gonzalez – drums, percussion (2020–2025)
Discography
Studio albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:12em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:18em;"| Album details
! scope="col" colspan="2"| Peak chart positions
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Certifications
|-
! scope="col" style="width:2.8em;font-size:90%;"| US
|-
!scope="row"| Pablo Cruise
|
- Release date: May 1975
- Label: A&M Records
| 174
| —
|
|-
!scope="row"| Lifeline
|
- Release date: March 1976
- Label: A&M Records
| 139
| —
|
|-
!scope="row"| A Place in the Sun
|
- Release date: February 1977
- Label: A&M Records
| 19
| 92
|
- RIAA: Platinum
|-
!scope="row"| Worlds Away
|
- Release date: May 1978
- Label: A&M Records
| 6
| 7
|
- RIAA: Platinum
|-
!scope="row"| Part of the Game
|
- Release date: October 1979
- Label: A&M Records
| 39
| 53
|
|-
!scope="row"| Reflector
|
- Release date: July 1981
- Label: A&M Records
| 34
| 83
|
|-
!scope="row"| Out of Our Hands
|
- Release date: February 15th, 1983
- Label: A&M Records
| —
| —
|
|-
| colspan="10" style="font-size:90%"| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
|}
Compilation albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of compilation albums, with selected chart positions
|-
! scope="col" style="width:12em;"| Title
! scope="col" style="width:18em;"| Album details
|-
!scope="row"| Classics Volume 26
|
- Release date: October 11, 1988
- Label: A&M Records
|-
!scope="row"| The Best of Pablo Cruise
|
- Release date: May 8, 2001
- Label: A&M Records
|}
Live albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of live albums, with selected chart positions
|-
! scope="col" style="width:12em;"| Title
! scope="col" style="width:18em;"| Album details
|-
!scope="row"| It's Good to Be Live
|
- Release date: November 8, 2011
- Label: Red General Catalog
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of singles, with selected chart positions
|-
!scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year
!scope="col" rowspan="2"| Single
!scope="col" colspan="4"| Peak positions
!scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album
|-
! scope="col" style="width:2.8em;font-size:90%;"| US BB
! scope="col" style="width:2.8em;font-size:90%;"|
US CB
! scope="col" style="width:2.8em;font-size:90%;"| CAN
! scope="col" style="width:2.8em;font-size:90%;"| AUS