Oliver Cheatham (February 24, 1948 – November 29, 2013) was an American

contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music Music genre, genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of Pop music, pop, Soul music, soul, funk, Hip hop music, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive Recor ...

singer who is best remembered for his 1983 hit " Get Down Saturday Night". The song was sampled by Italian DJ Room 5 on his 2003 single " Make Luv", which reached number one on the UK charts, as well as by British DJ Michael Gray on his 2004 single " The Weekend".

Biography

Cheatham was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Encouraged by his mother to sing, over the years he joined several local groups including The Young Sirs, Mad Dog and the Pups and Gaslight before releasing a single, "Hard Times" on the Tier

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

. He then joined another group, the Sins of Satan, the group later being renamed as Roundtrip. They finally took Cheatham's first name and recorded two albums as Oliver. Cheatham then signed for

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wi ...

as a solo singer. He worked with Al Hudson of the band One Way on his first album, ''The Boss''. His first chart success came in 1983 with " Get Down Saturday Night", co-written by Cheatham and One Way's Kevin McCord, which reached no. 37 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

, and also reached no. 38 on the

UK singles chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The album, ''Saturday Night'', produced by Al Perkins, was released the same year. In 1986, he moved to the Critique label, and had further success in the US with the singles "S.O.S." (R&B chart no. 35), and "Celebrate (Our Love)". Other Cheatham singles included "Mama Said," "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," "Things to Make U Happy," and "Wish on a Star." After moving to the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based Warlock label, he recorded "Turn Out the Lights" and "Mindbuster" with

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American R&B and dance singer. Although she has only one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name, she has an extensive background in the mus ...

. He spent much of the 1990s working as a backing singer with artists including

Leo Sayer Gerard Hugh "Leo" Sayer (born 21 May 1948) is an English-Australian singer and songwriter whose singing career has spanned five decades. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009. Sayer launched his career in the United Kingdom ...

, and released his final album, ''Stand for Love'', in 2002. He returned to the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent ta ...

in 2003, when he was featured in Room 5's UK number one single, " Make Luv", which sampled "Get Down Saturday Night", though Cheatham re-recorded his vocal parts for later releases. The track was featured on a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

for Lynx deodorant on British TV. Its success in the UK led Cheatham to relocate to Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, and he recorded in London for the Native Soul record label. Elements of "Get Down Saturday Night" were also used in Michael Gray's 2004 hit, " The Weekend". It also featured in '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' and '' Ex Machina''. The track was also sampled for Lino di Meglio's 2013 song "I Can't Live Without (Dino In Paris Full Vox)". Cheatham died on November 29, 2013, at the age of 65, following a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

in his sleep.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

*
Oliver Cheatham at Discogs.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheatham, Oliver 1948 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American singers 20th-century African-American male singers American boogie musicians American contemporary R&B singers American dance musicians American funk singers Singers from Detroit American expatriates in England Deaths in England 20th-century American male singers 21st-century African-American people