Desmond Child & Rouge

Before Desmond Kid was the superstar producer/songwriter who caused heavyweights like Bon Jovi, Cher, and Alice Cooper, he was the first choice of Desmond Kid & Rouge — a fascinating but little-known pop-rock vocal quartet that recorded for Capitol in the past due ’70s. Kid was the just male in the group; Rouge people Myriam Valle, Maria Vidal, and Diana Grasselli had been all ladies. Their insufficient commercial success most likely had too much to perform with the actual fact that their R&B-influenced pop-rock was therefore exclusive — at least initially. The group’s lyrics got a street-wise quality that shown its NY base, and far like Billy Joel, Kid was a storyteller who actually knew how exactly to catch life in ny (although Kid and Vidal got actually fulfilled in Florida before starting up with Valle in NY). Child’s lyrics, while Joel-influenced, got a grittier, even more inner-city quality — boxers, gang people, and graffiti performers were one particular he had written about. Plus, Joel wasn’t as R&B-influenced as Desmond Kid & Rouge, that was shaped in 1977 and documented its self-titled debut recording for Capitol in 1978. When the LP didn’t sell, the group finished up taking a even more conventional pop-rock/world rock strategy on its second record Runners in the night time. That record didn’t perform any better, and Desmond Kid & Rouge split up in 1980. Vidal pursued a single career, documenting the title melody from the 1984 film Body Rock and roll and offering an record for A&M in 1987. Kid, meanwhile, became among pop-rock’s hottest manufacturer/songwriters from the middle- to past due ’80s and ’90s.