Robert S. Nevil (born October 2, 1958) is an American pop

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

, and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

who had five ''Billboard'' top 40 hits including his songs " C'est la Vie" (#2, 1986), " Dominoes" (#14, 1987), and " Wot's It to Ya" (#10, 1987).

Life and career

Nevil began playing guitar at age 11 and played in a series of

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

bands. He began performing his original music and signed a publishing deal in 1983, writing songs for the

Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, bl ...

, El DeBarge,

Alison Moyet Geneviève Alison Jane Ballard ( ; born 18 June 1961) is an English singer noted for her powerful bluesy contralto voice. She came to prominence as half of the duo Yazoo (also known as Yaz), but has since mainly worked as a solo artist. Her ...

, and Earth, Wind & Fire. In 1986, he obtained his first

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

, signing with

Manhattan Records Manhattan Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and operates as a branch of Capitol Music Group. Company history Manhattan Records was formed in 1984 by Bruce Lundvall and was later renamed EMI Manhattan Records af ...

, for whom he recorded his debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

with the producers Alex Sadkin and

Phil Thornalley Philip Thornalley (born 5 January 1960) is an English songwriter-producer who has worked in the music industry since 1978. He is perhaps best known for co-writing (with Scott Cutler and Anne Preven) the song " Torn" (made famous by Natalie Imbr ...

. His debut single " C'est la Vie" reached #2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, propelling the album into the

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

on both the US pop and ''

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 advertise ...

'' R&B

chart 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 tabu ...

. His second single "Dominoes" hit #14 on the Hot 100 and #22 on the

Hot Dance Music/Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as th ...

chart, while the third single "Wot's It to Ya" peaked at #10 on the Hot 100 and Dance Club/Play charts, and #69 on the R&B chart. He sang backup on Stevie Nicks' version of "Silent Night" for the holiday compilation,

A Very Special Christmas ''A Very Special Christmas'' is the title of an ongoing series of Christmas music compilation albums that benefit the Special Olympics. It features songs performed by artists from a variety of genres, such as U2, Stevie Nicks, Bon Jovi, Madonna ...

. Nevil's second album was released in 1988; however, it did not match the success of his debut album. '' A Place Like This'' ( #118) spawned the top 40 moderate hit "Back on Holiday" (#34), and a second single, "Somebody Like You", became a minor hit, peaking at #63. In 1991, Nevil's third album, '' Day 1'', was released to fewer sales. The lead single "Just Like You" became his biggest hit since his debut album, and his fifth and final top 40 single, peaking at #25 on the Hot 100. Second single "For Your Mind" peaked at #86, ending his chart run in the US. Nevil turned to writing and producing for other acts such as Babyface,

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Destiny's Child Destiny's Child was an American girl group whose final line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group began their musical career as Girl's Tyme, formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas. After years of limited ...

, and Japanese pop singer

Seiko Matsuda , known professionally as , is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter, known for being one of the most popular Japanese idols of the 1980s. Since then, she is still actively releasing new singles and albums, doing annual summer concert tours, win ...

. In 2006, he collaborated with

Matthew Gerrard Matthew Gerrard is a Canadian record producer and songwriter. Biography Gerrard grew up in Don Mills, a suburb of Toronto's north-east end. He attended George S. Henry Secondary School where he played trombone in band, later playing bass in a sc ...

on the

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994, and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). With Harwell's depar ...

album ''

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''. Gerrard had been writing for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

for some time and their work led to a partnership working on Disney projects including ''

The Cheetah Girls The Cheetah Girls may refer to: * The Cheetah Girls (franchise), a series of young adult novels by Deborah Gregory and the spin-offs made from the novels, including a film series ** ''The Cheetah Girls'' (film), a 2003 Disney Channel Original Movie ...

'', ''

High School Musical ''High School Musical'' is a 2006 American musical television film directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Peter Barsocchini. The 63rd Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) and first installment of the ''High School Musical'' film series, th ...

'', and ''

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'' franchises. Nevil shared ASCAP Awards for his work on ''

'' and ''

'' in 2008, 2009, and 2010. From 2011 on, Nevil has been creating, writing, and producing music for Extreme Music, part of

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is the largest music publisher in the world, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021. US-based, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is itself owned ...

. Several of his Extreme Music compositions appear on the 2015 Sony compilation album ''Party Pop''. Robbie Nevil is married with two children. He is the older brother of actor

Alex Nevil Alex Nevil (born January 25, 1965) is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying the role of Rebecca Howe's lecherous young boss " Martin Teal" in the American sitcom television series '' Cheers''. Born in Los Angeles, Cal ...

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

* ''The Best of Robbie Nevil'' (1998) * ''Wot's It to Ya: The Best of Robbie Nevil'' (1999) * ''Party Pop'' (2015)

Singles

Notes

References

External links

* *

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

br>Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nevil, Robbie 1958 births Living people American dance musicians American male singers American male songwriters Songwriters from California Singers from Los Angeles