Ray Parker Jr. › Similar Artists

The Bus Boys - 90% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Sheena Easton - 60% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Sheena Shirley Orr, 27 April 1959, Bellshill, Scotland. Orr began performing while studying speech and drama at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music And Drama, studying by day and singing with the band Something Else in the evenings. Her short-lived marriage to actor Sandi Easton gave Orr her new name, and as Sheena Easton she was signed to EMI Records in 1979 following an au Read more

Deniece Williams - 58% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Deniece Chandler, 3 June 1951, Gary, Indiana, USA. Williams is a gospel/soul singer whose successes span the 70s and 80s. As a child she sang in a gospel choir and made her first recordings in the late 60s for the Chicago-based Toddlin’ Town label. After training as a nurse, she was hired by Stevie Wonder to join his Wonderlove vocal backing group. She contributed to fo Read more

Starship - 57% match to Ray Parker Jr.

DeBarge - 55% match to Ray Parker Jr.

One sister, Bunny DeBarge (15 March 1955), and four brothers, Mark (b. 19 June 1959), James (b. 22 August 1963), Randy (b. 6 August 1958) and El DeBarge (b. 4 June 1961), combined to form this family group in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, in 1978. Signed to Motown Records in 1979, they were viewed and marketed as successors to the young Jackson Five, a ploy helped by the phys Read more

Shalamar - 55% match to Ray Parker Jr.

This act was created by Dick Griffey, booking agent for US television’s Soul Train show, and Simon Soussan, a veteran of UK’s northern soul scene. The latter produced ‘Uptown Festival’, a medley of popular Motown Records favourites, which was issued on Griffey’s Solar label. Although credited to ‘Shalamar’, the track featured session musicians Read more

Corey Hart - 54% match to Ray Parker Jr.

31 May 1962, Montreal, Canada. Corey Hart was one of the biggest-selling Canadian acts of the 80s before his career entered what seemed to be terminal decline at the end of that decade. He had always intended to become a singer from childhood, an ambition hardly qualified by exposure to other musical traditions when his father moved the family to Malaga, Spain, when he was f Read more

A Taste Of Honey - 53% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Irene Cara - 52% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Irene T Escalera, 18 March 1959, New York City, New York, USA. Having spent most of her childhood as a successful actor, singer and dancer, Cara’s role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 Alan Parker movie Fame was tailor-made. Based around the lives, loves and ambitions of students at the New York School of Performing Arts, Cara’s rendition of the jubilant title song wa Read more

Jody Watley - 52% match to Ray Parker Jr.

30 January 1959, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Formerly one third of Shalamar between 1977 and 1984, a hugely successful group of the disco era, Watley’s first professional experience had come as a dancer on the television show Soul Train. After Shalamar disbanded she made the progression to solo artist, working in a contemporary soul/urban R&B vein. Her self-titled debut Read more

Champaign - 51% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Based in Champaign, Illinois, USA, this self-contained pop-funk band came together in 1981 and took their name from their home city. A white instrumental unit fronted by two black vocalists, Champaign was a merger of veterans of previous bands and comprised Michael Day (guitar/keyboards), Rocky Maffit (drums), Leon Reeder (guitar), Dana Walden (keyboards), Michael Reed (bass), Read more

Glenn Frey - 51% match to Ray Parker Jr.

6 November 1948, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Frey’s early career was forged as singer, guitarist in a number of local attractions, including the Mushrooms and Subterraneans. He appeared on several sessions by the Bob Seger System, singing back-up on ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man’, a 1968 hit, before moving to Los Angeles. Here Frey formed Longbranch Pennywhistl Read more

Juice Newton - 51% match to Ray Parker Jr.

Judy Kaye Cohen, 18 February 1952, Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA. This singing daughter from a military family spent most of her childhood in Virginia. While completing a formal education in California, she fronted Dixie Peach, a country rock combo that was renamed Silver Spur for their RCA Records albums in the mid-70s. Despite assistance from top Los Angeles session musicians Read more

The Pointer Sisters - 49% match to Ray Parker Jr.

These four sisters, Anita (23 January 1948), Bonnie (b. 11 July 1951), Ruth (b. 19 March 1946) and June (b. 30 November 1953, East Oakland California, USA, d. 11 April 2006, Santa Monica, California, USA), were all born and raised in East Oakland, California, USA, and first sang together in the West Oakland Church of God where their parents were ministers. Despite their fami Read more

Cameo - 47% match to Ray Parker Jr.

This US soul/funk act, originally called the New York City Players, was formed in 1974 by Larry ‘Mr. B’ Blackmon (New York City, New York, USA; drums, vocals) and vocalists Tomi Jenkins and Nathan Leftenant. Building up a strong following by undergoing rigorous touring schedules, with their backing group at times numbering almost a dozen members, they signed with t Read more