Michael Austin "Mic" Murphy (born January 9, 1958) is an American musician, lead singer of the successful 1980s synth R&B duo the System. He is well known for singing the group's biggest hit, " Don't Disturb This Groove," a 1987 US #4 Pop and #1 R&B hit.

Career

Murphy was born in

Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, North Carolina, but he moved to

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, New York at an early age. As a young musician, he was an early advocate of

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

music technology. Murphy was road manager for the band

Kleeer Kleeer was an American New York City–based funk, disco and post-disco band, which was formed in 1972 under the name The Jam Band, as a backup group to different disco bands and vocalists. Members * Woodrow "Woody" Cunningham (lead vocalist an ...

in the early 1980s, and through them he met his future System bandmate, David Frank. The two joined forces and made an immediate impact with their first album as the System. The single "You Are in My System," helped to usher in a new era of electronically based pop music. In 1987, the group scored its major breakthrough with "Don't Disturb this Groove."

Solo career and beyond

After The System was disbanded in 1989, Murphy briefly pursued a solo career. In 1991, he released his debut solo album, ''Touch'', which featured a minor R&B hit, "Fit to Be Tied." His 2004 remix with writing partner Tim K (of

Lucy Woodward Lucy Woodward is an English-American singer-songwriter. She has released records on Atlantic, Verve, and GroundUP and has sung with many artists including Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Snarky Puppy, Celine Dion, Pink Martini, Gavin DeGraw, ...

's "Blindsided"), reached #1 on the Billboard Club Play Chart. He was a featured vocalist on Home & Garden's 2007 album ''Domesticated'', which was released on Om Records and produced by Tim K and Timothy Shumaker.''no title''
; OM-Records on-line

Discography

Solo albums

*''Touch'' (1991)

with The System

* ''

Sweat Perspiration, also known as sweat, is the fluid secreted by sweat glands in the skin of mammals. Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and Apocrine sweat gland, apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distribu ...

'' (1983) * '' X-Periment'' (1984) * '' The Pleasure Seekers'' (1985) * '' Don't Disturb This Groove'' (1987) * '' Rhythm & Romance'' (1989) * ''ESP'' (2000) * ''System Overload'' (2013)

References

External links

Interview
*

''Billboard bio''

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 ...

on-line
''MTV Biography''
MTV on-line
''The System (David Frank) – 2012 Audio Interview''
Soul Interviews {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Mic The System (band) Living people Musicians from Raleigh, North Carolina American contemporary R&B singers 1958 births African-American guitarists American rhythm and blues guitarists American soul guitarists American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American soul musicians African-American songwriters Singer-songwriters from North Carolina