Jean Beauvoir
Encyclopedia
Jean Beauvoir is an American singer bassist
, guitarist
and multi-instrumentalist.
Beauvoir was born in Chicago
to parents of Haiti
an background. He played drums as a child and switched to bass as a teenager. He was Gary U.S. Bonds
's musical director at age 13; following this he sang in the doo wop group The Flamingos
. He moved to New York City
during the punk rock
explosion and answered a newspaper ad for a bassist, which led to his joining The Plasmatics for two albums. While with the Plasmatics and subsequently, Beauvoir sported a conspicuous blond
mohawk
.
He left the group after their release Beyond the Valley of 1984 to join Steve Van Zandt's Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for two albums. Following this he launched a solo career with the album Drums Along the Mohawk, released in the U.K. on Virgin Records
in 1986. That same year, the track "Feel the Heat" was chosen by Sylvester Stallone
for his film, Cobra, and the song became a hit in the U.S., reaching #73 on the Billboard Hot 100
. On the strength of the single, Drums Along the Mohawk was released in the U.S. and peaked at #93 on the Billboard 200
. Jean Beauvoir's success was much greater in the rest of the world; the single "Feel the Heat" charted top 10 across Europe and in Australia.
Beauvoir released several further solo albums since the late 1980s, mostly released in Europe. Since then he has also written, produced for, and performed with acts such as Kiss
, John Waite
, The Ramones
, Nona Hendryx
, The Pretenders
, Deborah Harry
, Lionel Richie
, Doro
and N'SYNC. He has appeared on over 100 albums over the past two decades. He has also fronted the bands Voodoo X and Crown of Thorns, which was originally signed to Interscope Records for a much publicized record breaking deal. Both these hard rock groups have achieved significant success in the rest of the world.
Beauvoir founded and serves as CEO/President of Voodoo Island Entertainment Group whose divisions included Voodoo Island records and Voodoo Island Productions. Over the course of his professional career, he has created joint venture partnerships with industry veterans such as Richard Branson
, Al Teller, Ted Fields, Jimmy Iovine
, Gene Simmons
and Paul Stanley
, and Lou Pearlman
. Beauvoir is also the founder and CEO/President of Hot Boy Music and Tigre Noire Music. Beauvoir’s worldwide music catalogue contains over 250 published titles currently administered by Rondor/Universal. Beauvoir served as CEO/Managing Director of Renegade Nation for 6 1/2 years - a company founded by chairman Little Steven Van Zandt. Beauvoir continues to produce, write and lead his group Crown of Thorns. Crown of Thorns re-released their 2008 CD "Faith" on June 9, 2009 with three bonus tracks via the Lost Cathedral label, part of the Renegade Nation/Little Steven's Underground Garage family of ventures. Additionally,
In addition to his film music work with Sylvester Stallone, he has also composed title music for the films Pet Semetary, Shocker
, Flawless, School of Rock
, Christmas with the Kranks
, The Guilty
, RV
, Rock and Roll High School Forever, and Berlin Nights.
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
, guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and multi-instrumentalist.
Beauvoir was born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to parents of Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an background. He played drums as a child and switched to bass as a teenager. He was Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds is an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer. He is also a prolific songwriter.-Career:...
's musical director at age 13; following this he sang in the doo wop group The Flamingos
The Flamingos
The Flamingos were a doo wop group from the United States, most popular in the mid to late 1950s and best known for their 1959 cover version of "I Only Have Eyes for You".-Early quintet:...
. He moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
explosion and answered a newspaper ad for a bassist, which led to his joining The Plasmatics for two albums. While with the Plasmatics and subsequently, Beauvoir sported a conspicuous blond
Blond
Blond or blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
mohawk
Mohawk hairstyle
The mohawk is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair...
.
He left the group after their release Beyond the Valley of 1984 to join Steve Van Zandt's Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for two albums. Following this he launched a solo career with the album Drums Along the Mohawk, released in the U.K. on Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
in 1986. That same year, the track "Feel the Heat" was chosen by Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
for his film, Cobra, and the song became a hit in the U.S., reaching #73 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. On the strength of the single, Drums Along the Mohawk was released in the U.S. and peaked at #93 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. Jean Beauvoir's success was much greater in the rest of the world; the single "Feel the Heat" charted top 10 across Europe and in Australia.
Beauvoir released several further solo albums since the late 1980s, mostly released in Europe. Since then he has also written, produced for, and performed with acts such as Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
, John Waite
John Waite
John Charles Waite is an English rock singer and musician. He was lead vocalist for The Babys and Bad English. As a solo artist, he scored several international hits, including 1984's "Missing You", a top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, reaching #1 in the...
, The Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, Nona Hendryx
Nona Hendryx
Nona Hendryx is an American vocalist, producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress.Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Marmalade." Her music has ranged from soul, funk, dance, and R&B to hard rock, art...
, The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
, Deborah Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
, Doro
Doro (musician)
Dorothee Pesch , popularly known as Doro Pesch or Doro, is a female rock vocalist, formerly of the German heavy metal band Warlock ....
and N'SYNC. He has appeared on over 100 albums over the past two decades. He has also fronted the bands Voodoo X and Crown of Thorns, which was originally signed to Interscope Records for a much publicized record breaking deal. Both these hard rock groups have achieved significant success in the rest of the world.
Beauvoir founded and serves as CEO/President of Voodoo Island Entertainment Group whose divisions included Voodoo Island records and Voodoo Island Productions. Over the course of his professional career, he has created joint venture partnerships with industry veterans such as Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
, Al Teller, Ted Fields, Jimmy Iovine
Jimmy Iovine
James "Jimmy" Iovine is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.-Biography:...
, Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, actor, and rock bassist. Known as "The Demon", he is the bassist/vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
and Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley
Stanley Harvey Eisen , better known by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American hard rock guitarist, singer, musician, painter and songwriter best known for being the rhythm guitarist and primary lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's...
, and Lou Pearlman
Lou Pearlman
Louis Jay "Lou" Pearlman is a former impresario of the successful 1990s boy bands such as The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Take 5, O-Town and US5. In 2006, it was discovered that Pearlman had perpetrated one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history, leaving more than $300...
. Beauvoir is also the founder and CEO/President of Hot Boy Music and Tigre Noire Music. Beauvoir’s worldwide music catalogue contains over 250 published titles currently administered by Rondor/Universal. Beauvoir served as CEO/Managing Director of Renegade Nation for 6 1/2 years - a company founded by chairman Little Steven Van Zandt. Beauvoir continues to produce, write and lead his group Crown of Thorns. Crown of Thorns re-released their 2008 CD "Faith" on June 9, 2009 with three bonus tracks via the Lost Cathedral label, part of the Renegade Nation/Little Steven's Underground Garage family of ventures. Additionally,
In addition to his film music work with Sylvester Stallone, he has also composed title music for the films Pet Semetary, Shocker
Shocker (film)
Shocker is a 1989 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven. The relatively low-budget film has since become a cult classic...
, Flawless, School of Rock
School of Rock
School of Rock, also called The School of Rock, is a 2003 American musical comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, and starring Jack Black...
, Christmas with the Kranks
Christmas with the Kranks
Christmas with the Kranks is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Joe Roth and starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. The screenplay by Chris Columbus is based on the 2001 novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.-Plot:...
, The Guilty
The Guilty (2000 film)
The Guilty is a 2000 American crime film directed by Anthony Waller and starring Bill Pullman, Devon Sawa, Gabrielle Anwar, Angela Featherstone and Joanne Whalley.-Plot summary:...
, RV
RV (film)
RV is a 2006 comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, written by Geoff Rodkey, and starring Robin Williams, Joanna "JoJo" Levesque, Cheryl Hines, Josh Hutcherson, Jeff Daniels, Kristin Chenoweth and Will Arnett. It was released on April 28, 2006 in North America...
, Rock and Roll High School Forever, and Berlin Nights.
Solo
- Drums Along the Mohawk (Virgin RecordsVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, 1986) - Jacknifed (Columbia RecordsColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, 1988) - Rockin' in the Street (Virgin RecordsVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, 1996) - Bare to the Bones (Point Records, 2001)
- Chameleon (Edel Records, 2004)
Crown of Thorns
- Crown of Thorns (1993)
- Raw Thorns (demos from 1991–1994) (1994) (re-released in 2002 with bonus DVD)
- 21 Thorns (re-release of first album + bonus disc of live tracks) (1995)
- Breakthrough (1996)
- Lost Cathedral (1998)
- Destiny Unknown (2000)
- Karma (2002)
- Crown Jewels (greatest hits) (2004)
- Faith (2008)