Robin Beck

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Robin Beck.

Robin Beck (born on 7 November 1954, in Brooklyn, NY) is an American female singer. She topped the singles charts in the UK and Germany during 1988 with her single "The First Time", which had come to the public's attention via its use in a Coca-Cola commercial. Coca-Cola Great Britain had tapped the 33 year old American jingle singer because of her solid vocal performance on a 1987-1988 Coca-Cola jingle that aired in most countries outside the United States and Canada (although The Coca-Cola Company (United Kingdom), Ltd. spun her age to the UK press as 27).

[edit] Life and work

Prior to this one-off achievement, she had spent time as a backing singer, supporting the efforts of Melissa Manchester, Chaka Khan, and even Leo Sayer. However, her subsequent debut LP's songs failed to achieve commercial success. Although it later spawned, "Save Up All Your Tears" for Cher and "Tears in the Rain" five years later by Jennifer Rush with much greater success.

She is perhaps best remembered for the odd fact that, after waiting thirty-five years in the UK singles chart, for the first instance of three consecutive female vocalists at the top of the chart, she completed the second such occurrence in under a year.

The first sequence in 1988 was Belinda Carlisle, Tiffany and Kylie Minogue; whilst she completed the second, almost unique, threesome of Whitney Houston, Enya, and Robin Beck. However, it also qualified her for the less desirable title of 'one-hit wonder', as it is her one and only single to reach the UK Top 40.

In 2006, the Swedish dance outfit Sunblock sampled Beck's single "The First Time" for their dance track "First Time". Robin Beck can now be seen performing this song, which was released on the 21 May, and reached number 9 in the UK singles chart.

[edit] Discography

Maxi Singles:

Sweet Talk (12'', Mercury, 1979)
First Time (12'', 1988)

LPs and CDs

Sweet Talk (Mercury 1979) (Debut album featuring Irene Cara and Luther Vandross on backing vocals with some of the songs)
Trouble Or Nothin' (Mercury 1989)
Human Instinct (DSB 1992)
Can't Get Off (Eastwest 1994)
Wonderland (Reality/Sony 2003)
Do You Miss Me (2005)