William Randall DeBarge (born August 6, 1958) is an American R&B/

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

singer and

bass guitarist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low bra ...

, best known for being one of the original members of the popular

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

singing family group

DeBarge DeBarge was an American musical recording group composed of several members of the DeBarge family. In addition to various solo projects completed by members of the family, DeBarge was active between 1979 and 1989. The group originally consiste ...

. Randy is also known for singing co-lead and penning lyrics with brother El on the group's first hit, " I Like It" (1982).

Biography

Early years

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

growing up in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

, Randy was the fourth eldest of ten children born to Robert DeBarge, Sr. and Etterlene DeBarge. The DeBarge kids all sang in church and in high school, Randy joined the local band and learned how to play bass guitar from his elder brother Tommy. When Randy was seventeen, his older brothers Bobby and Tommy formed the

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

-based funk/soul group

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

, later on signing with

in 1977. Three years later, Motown signed Randy, El, Bunny and Mark DeBarge to Motown where they had formed the DeBarges shortening it to DeBarge following the release of their first album in 1981.

DeBarge

After their 1981 debut, ''The DeBarges'' failed to garner any interest, the group decided to write and produce themselves with some help from

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), also known as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and i ...

's niece Iris, the group released their sophomore release '' All This Love''. After the modest success of the group's funk single, " Stop! Don't Tease Me", the second single, " I Like It" became their first hit reaching number two on the R&B charts and crossing over to number 31. It was co-led by Randy and El, whose higher vocals carried the rest of the group's releases from then on. Within a year, DeBarge was one of the hottest-selling R&B groups in the world scoring hits such as " All This Love", "

Love Me in a Special Way Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good hab ...

", and " Rhythm of the Night". After both El and sister

Bunny Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

left for solo careers in 1986, Randy and his brothers recruited oldest brother Bobby to record the group's fifth release, ''Bad Boys'', but due to the record's limited production on the independent Striped Horse label, the record tanked. After a drug conviction befell Bobby and the group's younger brother Chico, the rest of DeBarge disbanded at the end of the eighties.

Later years

A father of five, Randy DeBarge reportedly suffered drug and alcohol addiction but was able to find partial sobriety in the mid-1990s. According to a recent '' JET'' article on the whereabouts of the singing DeBarge family, Randy's mother revealed that DeBarge suffers from an incurable disease that was not fatal. DeBarge currently resides in California. On September 21, 2011, Randy appeared on '' Lifechangers'', a daytime show hosted by Drew Pinsky on

The CW Television Network The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the first ...

. Dr. Drew recommended rehab for drug addiction. Randy entered the rehabilitation program. Randy left 33 days later, against the rehab's and Dr. Drew's recommendation.

Discography

;with DeBarges * ''

The DeBarges ''The DeBarges'' is the debut album by DeBarge, released by Gordy Records on April 6, 1981. It saw limited success and stalled on the charts; the group felt it was not properly promoted. As a result, they revisited ''The DeBarges'' by including t ...

'' (1981) * '' All This Love'' (1982) * ''

In a Special Way ''In a Special Way'' is the third studio album by American R&B group DeBarge, released by Gordy Records on September 23, 1983. It was recorded at Kendun Records in Burbank and Westlake Audio in West Hollywood; written and produced by lead voca ...

'' (1983) * '' Rhythm of the Night'' (1985) * ''Bad Boys'' (1987) * '' Back on Track'' (1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debarge, Randy 1958 births Living people 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers DeBarge members American soul singers American funk bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American tenors Musicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan DeBarge family 20th-century American guitarists Singers from Detroit Guitarists from Detroit African-American guitarists