Jules Shear

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Jules Shear is an American singer and songwriter born in Pittsburgh in 1952. Although he has had only one minor hit as a performer ("Steady", which reached number 56 on the US charts in 1985), he has recorded 11 solo albums between 1983 and 2005. He also led the critically-acclaimed but commercially-unsuccessful pop group, Jules and the Polar Bears, who recorded Got No Breeding in 1978 and Fanetiks in 1979. (Its title is the phonetic spelling of "phonetic". The lyric sheet and all credits were printed phonetically. This album was not released on CD until 2006, under the title Fanetiks/Phonetics.) A third album, Bad For Business, was rejected by the label, Columbia, and the band broke up. That album was released on CD in 1995.

His songs have been more commercially successful in the hands of other artists, notably Cyndi Lauper, whose recording of "All Through the Night" reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, and The Bangles, whose recording of "If She Knew What She Wants" reached number 29 in 1986.

Singer/songwriter Iain Matthews recorded an album of Shear's material, Walking A Changing Line, with notably different, synthesizer-dominated arrangements, in 1988.

Shear conceived and hosted the first 13 episodes of the MTV series Unplugged.

Shear was the subject of a song by 'Til Tuesday, "J For Jules", after the end of his relationship with that band's singer, Aimee Mann. He also co-wrote the title track of that album, Everything's Different Now, with Matthew Sweet.

Most recently, Jules released Dreams Don't Count on the student record label MAD Dragon Records through Drexel University.

Shear is married to singer/songwriter Pal Shazar.

[edit] Discography

The Funky Kings: Funky Kings
Jules and the Polar Bears: Got No Breeding; Fenetiks; Bad For Business
Jules Shear: Watch Dog; Jules; The Eternal Return; Demo-Itis; The Third Party; Horse Of A Different Color; The Great Puzzle; Healing Bones; Unplug This; Between Us; Allow Me; Saying Hello To The Folks; Dreams Don't Count
Dreams Don't Count is Jules most recent album. Produced by Jules and long-time friend Stewart Lerman, this album is full of melodic acoustic tracks.
Reckless Sleepers: Big Boss Sounds!
Shear was also a major contributor to Elliot Easton's 1985 solo album Change No Change, co-writing all songs and singing background vocals. In the liner notes, both Easton and Shear cite the closing ballad, "Wide Awake", as their favorite track from the album.
Watch Dog was produced by Todd Rundgren and featured Easton on "Standing Still". In addition to "All Through The Night" (see above), the album's opening track, "Whispering Your Name", was later covered by Alison Moyet.
Jules was an EP which contained selections from Watch Dog, plus two mixes of a dance number, "When Love Surges".
The Eternal Return was the album featuring "If She Knew What She Wants", originally written in the first-person (The Bangles version is sung in the third.) Another song, "Steady", was co-written with Cyndi Lauper.
Demo-Itis was a collection of home and studio demos. Most of the songs had been previously unreleased, but contained demos of "All Through The Night", "If She Knew What She Wants", and other previous album tracks.
The Third Party was recorded entirely with one acoustic guitar, played by Marty Willson-Piper of the Australian band The Church (band), and one vocal track by Shear. The lyric sheet also included the chords to each song.
Horse Of A Different Color was a compilation of Shear's band and solo work. It included one song from Funky Kings, "Nothing Was Exchanged".
The Great Puzzle included guitarist Richard Bredice from Jules and the Polar Bears.
Healing Bones featured Shear's first recorded cover, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More" (originally a hit for The Walker Brothers), and also included a song written with Rick Danko, "Never Again Or Forever". Elliot Easton played lead guitar on all tracks.
Unplug This, Between Us, and Dreams Don't Count are dominated by Shear's unique rhythm-guitar style, previously unheard in his work. Shear plays left-hand guitar in open tunings by reaching over the neck to fret the strings with his thumb. Unplug This collected live solo performances. Between Us was a collection of original duets, featuring singers Paula Cole, Rosanne Cash, Carole King, Margo Timmins, and Angie Hart of Frente, among others.
Allow Me was another full-band project of original material, while Saying Hello To The Folks is a collection of covers.
The Funky Kings also included band member Jack Tempchin, and the original version of his song, "Slow Dancing". That number, and Shear's "So Easy To Begin", were both recorded by Olivia Newton-John for album Making A Good Thing Better (1977). "So Easy To Begin" was also covered by Art Garfunkel. As of this writing the album is unavailable on CD, and a second album remains unreleased.
The Reckless Sleepers was an original band project of collaborations; however, its only success was "If We Never Meet Again", written by Shear alone. The single version received minor airplay, and was covered first by Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers, and later by Roger McGuinn. Lead guitarist of the Reckless Sleepers was Jimmy Vivino currently of The Max Weinberg 7.

[edit] Trivia

Jules's aforementioned unique guitar playing style consisted of tuning the guitar in an open-G with an E in the bass. The guitar was not left-hand style per se (with the strings installed in reverse order), but actually held upside down, with the fretting hand's thumb wrapped down over the upper edge of the neck, barring across the strings, and the low E being at the thumb's tip.