He became one of the most successful soul/R&B artists of the 1980s. Very few people even realized Billy Ocean had been recording for nearly a decade before massive crossover smashes like “Suddenly” appeared and made him an international superstar.
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“Suddenly” was especially important in his rise, as it showed he could slow down the pace and deliver a heart-melting ballad. Here’s how Billy Ocean rose from obscurity and laid down this beauty of a track.
Ocean Sounds
Born in Trinidad as Leslie Sebastian Charles, Billy Ocean settled in Great Britain and began his recording career under his birth name. In 1976, he released his first album as Billy Ocean (the “Ocean” name was borrowed from a soccer team in his native Trinidad and Tobago) and found immediate success with the song “Love Really Hurts Without You,” which scored on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ocean added a few more UK hits, but his success in the U.S. dried up quickly. As the ’80s dawned, he found himself caught up in record label turmoil. He wasn’t comfortable feeling like he was just one of many artists within a massive conglomerate, so he began to seek out other options, looking for a more personal touch.
Luckily, he found a professional lifeline in Clive Calder of Jive Records. Calder liked the songs Ocean and his co-writer Keith Diamond played for him, one of which was “Suddenly.” Jive decided to send Ocean to America to record his first LP for the label, which arrived in 1984.
“Suddenly” Success
1984 was about as competitive a year as the U.S. pop charts had ever witnessed, considering the musical behemoths who released records that year. Nonetheless, Ocean, who felt like a new artist to those who didn’t know his ’70s work, was able to break through, not just in the R&B world but also among the pop titans.
“Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run),” a song that Ocean recorded a few times, changing the title lyrics based on the area in which the song was being released, made a huge splash in the U.S. and hit No. 1. He followed that up with “Loverboy,” which received a big assist from co-writer and producer Mutt Lange.
To really show staying power in the ’80s, however, you needed to have that big, sweeping ballad in your arsenal. “Suddenly,” the title track of the album that produced all those hits, was just such a song. It continued Ocean’s incredible run of success by hitting the Top 5 in both the UK and U.S.
What is “Suddenly” About?
“Suddenly” does a wonderful job of capturing that eureka moment when a lonely person finds love out of nowhere. For that moment to make the necessary impact, you first have to reference the solitude that came before it: I used to think that love was just a fairy tale, Ocean begins. Until that first hello, until that first smile.
Once the transformation is complete, this guy can do nothing else but sing the praises of the girl who has transformed his life in one fell swoop. I wouldn’t change a thing / ‘Cause this love is everlasting, Ocean sings. In the chorus, it all falls upon him like a benevolent storm: There’s beauty up above / And things we never take notice of / You wake up, suddenly you’re in love.
It was fitting for Ocean to use this song as the title track to the album, because it did indeed seem like “Suddenly” he was a star. The dues paid in the past mostly receded to the background of his story as he sunk into a stretch of ’80s hits that few others could boast.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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