Caribbean King

Everyone knows Rhianna is from Barbados which is part of the Caribbean. If you remember a few decades ago, there was a guy from the Caribbean who also rocked the charts.

His first hits dropped in 1976 and continue to perform still, at the age of 72. He has sold more than 30 million records. Who is this man? Well, he is the Caribbean King, Billy Ocean.

Billy has hits worldwide, USA, Australia, Europe, Holland and the UK. Hits include “Loverboy”, “Love really hurts without you”, “Suddenly” and every tough guy at schools anthem, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

Billy has no less than 5 top 10 songs in Australia, his two number ones were, “When the going gets tough”, and “get out of my dreams and into my car”.

If you love your reggae, pop, R&B and soul, and you want more of the Caribbean king head to his website. There’s info on his 2023 tour unfortunately it’s only in the UK.

Billy’s first hit was in 1976, “Love really Hurts without you”. Between 1976 and 1982 Billy released 4 albums, of which “LRHWY” was the only hit. It hit number 3 in Australia, Number 2 in the UK, and 22 in the US.

Billy’s Break Through

In 1984 Billy’s fifth studio album was the breakthrough for mainstream music. The album “Suddenly” Spawned the hits, Caribbean Queen”, The title Track “Suddenly” and “Loverboy”.

In 1985 a film Starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny Devito was released, its title The Jewel In the Nile”. The title song was from Billy’s Sixth Studio Album, Titled Love Zone.

The title track is “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. The Album Love Zone had one more hit, There’ll be sad songs to make you cry.

Two Years Later Billy had his last top 10 Song It reached Number 1 in Australia, Number 3 in the UK, and Number 1 in the US. His last hit was Get out of my dreams, and into my car. Sadly this was his last really big hit. But the good news is he is still working hard and continues to tour.

The ’80s was an amazing time for music, music genres really began to explode, with World Sounds, by artists like Toni Childs (Read More Here). Some Genres Dying out, like Disco. In particular, 1984, had the best music by far, just google Billboard top 100 1984 and you will see why.

Well if you’re like me, and music brings back memories, I hope this little article brings back memories for you too, hopefully, good ones, great ones even.

As always, love, share and follow!

If you are on Discord, find us PopRockRadio#1664 and we will let you know when we are online for a chat!