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

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...

singer,

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 ge ...

, producer, and guitarist 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 copy ...

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

, and

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...

. 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, for whom he recorded his debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

with the producers

Alex Sadkin Alex Sadkin (April 9, 1949July 25, 1987) was an American record producer, engineer, mixer and mastering engineer. Sadkin grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida across the street from Bennett Elementary School, and played saxophone in Sunrise Junio ...

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 Im ...

. His debut single " C'est la Vie" reached #2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, propelling the album into the top 40 on both the US

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. 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 Babyface or Baby Face can refer to: Nicknames * Lester Joseph Gillis a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, an infamous 1930s bank robber * Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette (1933–1971), an American hard bop and soul-jazz musician * "Baby Face", Jimmy McLarnin ...

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, and Japanese pop singer Seiko Matsuda. 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 s ...

on the Smash Mouth album ''

Summer Girl ''Summer Girl'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Smash Mouth, released on September 19, 2006 through Beautiful Bomb Records. This is the last album featuring original guitarist and songwriter Greg Camp. The album was released wi ...

''. Gerrard had been writing for Disney for some time and their work led to a partnership working on Disney projects including '' The Cheetah Girls'', '' High School Musical'', and '' Hannah Montana'' franchises. Nevil shared ASCAP Awards for his work on '' High School Musical'' and '' Hannah Montana'' 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. 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.

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

* * Allmusicbr>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