Robin Beck

Robin Beck is an American rock singer. She topped the singles chart in the United Kingdom in 1988, and Austria, Germany, Norway, Netherlands and Switzerland in 1989, with her single "First Time", which had come to the public's attention via its use in a Coca-Cola commercial. Other well-known songs of hers are "Save Up All Your Tears", "In My Heart to Stay", "Tears in the Rain" and "Close to You".
Also, "First Time" was successfully covered or sampled many times, the most recent was made by Sunblock in 2006, peaking at number nine on the UK Singles Chart. Beck also performed it with German pop star Helene Fischer.
Career
Prior to this achievement, she had spent time as a backing singer, supporting the efforts of Melissa Manchester, Chaka Khan, and Leo Sayer. She also sang on radio jingles for Jam Creative Productions, in particular "the ultimate one" for BBC Radio One in the UK. Her first album was released in 1979, and featured Irene Cara and Luther Vandross on backing vocals. Among the tracks was a slow, soulful cover of "Hello It's Me" that was originally recorded by Nazz and later by its songwriter Todd Rundgren. On the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, the album's same-titled track "Sweet Talk" peaked at number 31, making it her only single to chart in the U.S., thus, she was a one-hit wonder there. However, her debut album's songs failed to achieve commercial success in the United Kingdom, although it later spawned "Save Up All Your Tears" which hit the Top 10 in Germany. After this, Beck contributed backing vocals to Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time", and another version of Cher's song "Save Up all Your Tears", both of which had radio success world wide.
Her major hit coincided with a unique chart confluence; after waiting thirty-five years for the first instance of three consecutive female vocalists at the top of the UK Singles Chart, she completed the second such occurrence in under a year. The first sequence was Belinda Carlisle, Tiffany and Kylie Minogue in 1988; the second threesome consisted of Whitney Houston, Enya and Beck. She has qualified as a one-hit wonder in the UK, as "First Time" is her only single to reach their chart. This is not the case in Germany, where "Save Up All Your Tears" reached number 10, and she had at least three other chart singles. The German success of "First Time" won Beck a 1990 RSH Gold award, given annually by a German radio station since 1988 on the basis of major regional airplay success. Despite the song's charting success overall in Europe, it failed to chart in her home country in the US due to the lack of promotion from Mercury Records and Coca-Cola, both whom had business political differences, of wanting to promote either First Time or Save Up All Your Tears.
Her album Trouble or Nothin was produced by Desmond Child and featured songs by Child, Diane Warren, Holly Knight, Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg. Despite their track record of success in the US, Beck's material did not find success. The song, "Hide Your Heart", charted in both the US and the UK as a single by KISS the same year as Beck's version was released. It was also recorded that year by Ace Frehley and Molly Hatchet, and was the title track of Bonnie Tyler's album of the previous year. Two other songs from the Beck album were released as singles by Tyler — "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)" (1986) and "Save Up All Your Tears" (1988) — and one by John Waite, "Don't Lose Any Sleep" (1987). Despite the songwriters' hit track records, none of those songs were major hits in the US in any of their versions. Partly for this reason, Mercury dropped Beck from its active roster thereafter. "A Crazy World Like This", co-written by Neil Giraldo, had been an album cut for Pat Benatar.
Beck went on to record further solo work with noted writers, which was best received in Germany, and continued to do guest vocal spots on other artists' albums, including a duet with Stan Bush. After a hiatus, with the exception of recording non-album songs, she returned in 2003 with her first album in nine years, and has followed that up with a new album every couple of years since.
Beck and her husband James Christian sang a duet on the song "Easy's Getting Harder" on Tommy Denander's third Radioactive album Taken in 2005.
In 2006, the Swedish dance outfit Sunblock sampled "First Time" for their dance track "First Time". Beck could be seen performing this song, which was released on May 21, and reached number nine in the UK Singles Chart. 2007 saw the release of Livin' on a Dream, where she co-wrote most of its tracks.
Her album Trouble or Nothing - 20th Anniversary Edition, was released in February 2009, which featured new recordings of the original album's tracks, plus four new songs co-written with Tommy Denander, who also handled guitars on the whole album as well as co-producing the new tracks. Also in 2009, she recorded three tracks as a special guest on Impulsia's debut album, Expressions: "Fly Away", "Alone" and "Seas to Cross".
In 2010, she appeared on a track as lead vocalist for the debut album of the Italian project Shining Line.
In 2011, she released her eighth album The Great Escape and also recorded vocals for the British NWOBHM band Saracen on their album Marilyn, depicting the life of Marilyn Monroe. It was released in September 2011. In 2012 she performed at the Firefest and was part of the Rock Meets Classic-Tour.
In 2013, she released her ninth album Underneath on August 12 in the UK and August 15 in Europe. Beck was interviewed most recently in that year by Paradise Rock.
On March 6, 2014, Beck started her "Perfect Storm Tour", co-headlined by House of Lords and Estrella.
On May 21, 2015, Beck started her "All That Glitters Tour" which took place in Finland, Sweden and Norway.
Beck appeared at Rock Icons on August 7, 2015, in Alicante, Spain.
It was revealed in April 2015 that Robin Beck was part of the Rockingham lineup at Nottingham's Rock City October 23–25. Beck's appearance was scheduled for the Friday, with Eclipse and headliner Tom Keifer (Cinderella) following her in the line-up.
Beck's tenth album Love Is Coming was released by Frontiers on October 13, 2017.
Personal life
Beck was born in Brooklyn's Brookdale Hospital, formerly Beth-El, on November 7, 1954, and grew up in the city's neighborhoods of East New York and Canarsie. Her family was Jewish. However, Beck disclosed in a January 2009 interview that both she and her husband, James Christian, were Christians. She has been married to Christian since 1996. They have a daughter, born in 1997.
Discography
Albums
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"| Year
! rowspan="2"| Album details
! colspan="4" | Peak chart positions
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
! style="width:30px;"| AUT
! style="width:30px;"| GER
! style="width:30px;"| SWE
! style="width:30px;"| SWI
|-
|1979
|style="text-align:left;"|Sweet Talk
Release date: 1979
Label: Mercury
Debut album featuring Irene Cara and Luther Vandross on backing vocals for some of the songs
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|1989
|style="text-align:left;"| Trouble or Nothin'
Release date: 1989
Label: Mercury
|—
|18
|23
|16
|-
|1992
|style="text-align:left;"| Human Instinct Release date: 1992
Label: Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin
|23
|—
|—
|—
|-
|1994
|style="text-align:left;"|Can't Get Off Release date: 1994
Label: EastWest
Beck also co-producer
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2003
|style="text-align:left;"|Wonderland Release dates: 2003 (U.S.); 2004 (Germany)
Label: Reality/Portrait
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2005
|style="text-align:left;"|Do You Miss Me Release date: August 2, 2005
Label: Frontiers
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2007
|style="text-align:left;"|Livin' on a Dream Release date: July 9, 2007
Label: Frontiers
Beck also co-writer
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2009
|style="text-align:left;"|Trouble or Nothing – 20th Anniversary Edition Release date: 2009
Label: Fastball Music
Album of re-recordings plus four new songs
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2011
|style="text-align:left;"|The Great Escape Release date: 2011
Label: Fastball Music
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2013
|style="text-align:left;"|Underneath Release date: August 20, 2013
Label: Cargo/Her Majesty's Music Room
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|2017
|style="text-align:left;"|Love Is Coming Release date: October 13, 2017
Label: Frontiers Music
|—
|—
|—
|—
|}
Singles
Lead performer
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2" | Year
! rowspan="2" | Single
! colspan="10" | Peak chart positions
! rowspan="2" | Album
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
! style="width:30px;" |AUT
! style="width:30px;" |FRA
! style="width:30px;" |GER
!IRE
! style="width:30px;" |NOR
! style="width:30px;" |NZ
! style="width:30px;" |SWE
! style="width:30px;" |SWI
! style="width:30px;" |UK
! style="width:30px;" |US Dance
|-
|1979
|"Sweet Talk"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|31
|Sweet Talk|-
|1988
|"First Time"
|1
|4
|1
|1
|1
|43
|2
|1
|1
|—
|rowspan=5|Trouble or Nothin
|-
|rowspan=2|1989
|"Save Up All Your Tears"
|27
|—
|10
|—
|—
|—
|17
|5
|84
|—
|-
|"Tears in the Rain"
|—
|—
|22
|—
|—
|—
|—
|21
|—
|—
|-
|rowspan=2|1990
|"Don't Lose Any Sleep"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|"Hide Your Heart"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|1992
| "In My Heart to Stay"
|—
|—
|55
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|rowspan=3|Human Instinct|-
|rowspan=2|1993
|"Gonna Take a Lifetime"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|"Love Yourself"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|rowspan=2|1994
|"Close to You"
|—
|—
|79
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|rowspan=2|Can't Get Off|-
|"If Lovin' You Is Wrong"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|rowspan=2|1999
|"Jewel in My Crown"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|rowspan=3|non-album singles
|-
|"Shut Up and Kiss Me"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|-
|rowspan=2|2003
|"First Time" (with DJ Unique)
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|61
|—
|—
|-
|"My Life"
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|
|—
|—
|Wonderland|-
|}
Guest performer
Guest appearances/collaborations
Pupo – Tornerò (1998) – Duet on track 1: "Non è un addio (Goodbye Is Not Forever)"
Impulsia – Expressions (2009)
Shining Line – Shining Line (2010) – Lead vocals on track 5: "Heat of the Light"
Shanghai – Bomb's Away (2001) – Lead vocals, duet on track 3: "Through These Eyes"
Saracen – Marilyn (2011) – Lead vocals on five tracks
Kjetil By – Better Days (2014)
Tomas Bergsten's Fantasy – Nightwalker'' (2015) – Lead vocals on track 2: "Stranger to Love"
Awards
RSH-GOLD - Radio Schleswig-Holstein-Musikpreis (Germany)
Best Newcomer 1989 for "First Time"
IFPI (Germany)
"First Time" Gold Single 1989
"First Time" Platinum Single 1989
SNEP (France)
"First Time" Silver Single 1989
IFPI (Swiss)
"First Time" Gold single 1989
BPI (UK)
"First Time" Silver Single 1988
References
External links
Official website
Interview with Robin Beck
The early Robin Beck from 1979 at Webstarts
American Christians
American women pop singers
American pop rock singers
American women rock singers
American disco singers
American soul singers
American women singer-songwriters
American rock songwriters
Frontiers Records artists
Jewish American songwriters
Jewish rock musicians
Jewish women singers
Mercury Records artists
Singers from Brooklyn
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)
Living people
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singer-songwriters
20th-century American singer-songwriters
20th-century American Jews
21st-century Christians
1954 births