William Randall DeBarge (born August 6, 1958) is an American R&B/soul music singer and bass guitarist, best known for being one of the original members of the popular Motown Records DeBarge family DeBarge.
Biography
Early years
Born in
Detroit,
Michigan growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 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 DeBarge and Tommy formed the
Ohio-based funk/soul group Switch, later on signing with
Motown Records 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'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", and "Rhythm of the Night". After both El and sister
Bunny DeBarge 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 DeBarge, 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. 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 (1981)
-
All This Love (1982)
-
In a Special Way (1983)
-
Rhythm of the Night (1985)
-
Bad Boys (1987)
-
Back on Track (1991)
