David Byron Cole (June 3, 1962 – January 24, 1995) was an American
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 ...
and
record producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
. Cole was one half of the dance-music duo C+C Music Factory, which he founded with his musical partner
Robert Clivillés
Robert Manuel Clivillés (; born July 30, 1964 from
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the w ...
,
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Wit ...
,
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...
,
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam were an urban contemporary band and one of the first freestyle music groups to emerge from New York City in the 1980s. Cult Jam consisted of vocalist Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Valez), guitarist/bassist Alex "Spanador" Moseley, ...
,
Deborah Cooper
Deborah Cooper is an American professional dancer, musician, singer,backup singer, award-winning composer and entertainer, with several number one and top charting dance music and house music hits.
Biography Early career
Cooper started as a fe ...
, and many others.
After Cole's death in 1995, Robert Clivillés continued to keep C+C Music Factory going through his own production work.
Musical career
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...
native Cole was a keyboardist at a church choir in 1984 when, already a regular guest there, in club Better Days he approached club owner Bruce Forest. Forest was known for playing live keyboards and drum machines on top of existing records. Forest invited Cole to join him in the record booth to play live keyboards over record. Cole continued to do so even after he had gained world wide success in the early 1990s.
Robert Clivillés
Robert Manuel Clivillés (; born July 30, 1964 from
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...
At the time they were the driving force of the short-lived
Brat Pack
The ''Brat Pack'' is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. First mentioned in a 1985 ''New York'' magazine article, it is now usually defined as the cast ...
. Cole also released one solo single called "You Take My Breath Away" in 1988.David Cole
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...
The duo were also responsible for the formation of pop group
Seduction
Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises".
Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...
, for whom they wrote and produced a string of Top-10 hits. They contributed to the career of former The Weather Girls vocalist
Martha Wash
Martha Elaine Wash (born December 28, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer. Known for her distinctive and powerful voice, Wash first achieved fame as half of the Two Tons O' Fun, who sang backing vocals for the disco si ...
, who at the same time was one of the lead vocalists for the dance act Black Box. In 1990, Clivillés and Cole released a single featuring later C+C Music Factory rapper
Freedom Williams
Frederick B. Williams (born February 13, 1966), better known by his stage name Freedom Williams, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter, who gained fame as the lead vocalist on C+C Music Factory's biggest hits.
Career
Born in Brooklyn in ...
, called "Get Dumb! (Free Your Body)", as The Crew. The duo's biggest success, however, was the group C+C Music Factory, which became a worldwide sensation in 1991.C+C Music Factory/Full Biography
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
Copyright lawsuits
In 1989, Clivillés and Cole wrote a song titled "Get Dumb (Free Your Body)" that was originally performed under the name The Crew, featuring Freedom Williams, and later by
Seduction
Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises".
Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...
. They allegedly illegally sampled portions of "The Music Got Me", which was written by
Boyd Jarvis
Boyd H. Jarvis (October 26, 1958 – February 17, 2018) was an American record producer, remixer and musician, best known for his song, co-written with Jason Smith, "The Music Got Me"; released in 1983 by Prelude Records. He has collaborated wit ...
of early-1980s music group Visual. Boyd sued them for
copyright infringement
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...
in 1990, and demanded $15 million in royalties.Jarvis v. A & M Records 827 F. Supp. 282 (D.N.J. 1993 UCLA
Four years later, Kevin McCord filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the w ...
, Cole, Clivillés, and
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...
, because, according to McCord, they took parts of his song called "I Want to Thank You" and created " Make It Happen" out of it without permission. Although the allegations were proven false, McCord eventually accepted a settlement offer of about US$500,000.
Death
Cole died on January 24, 1995, after a long illness. The official cause was announced by
Robert Clivillés
Robert Manuel Clivillés (; born July 30, 1964 from
spinal meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusi ...
. It has been speculated by others in the music community that he died of complications from
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...
, but no proof exists.
Cole was buried at East Ridgelawn Cemetery in
Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey and is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan Area. A ...
.
The song "
One Sweet Day
"One Sweet Day" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey and vocal group Boyz II Men. The song was released on as the second single from Carey's fifth studio album, ''Daydream'' (1995) by Columbia Records. The artists co ...
" by
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the w ...
, featuring
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men (pronounced ''boys to men''), also known as B2M, is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan ...