A biography of Alexander O'Neal

In this article, a biography about Alexander O'Neal, the American R&B singer will be illustrated. Find out what Alexander did through-out his career, his top singles and what he has been doing since he stopped releasing music.

The start of his career

Alexander O'Neal He is an American R&B singer, he was born in Natchez, Mississippi and re-located to Minneapolis when he was 20. Soon after he joined a band called “The Mystics” and played the local cover band circuit. Alexander O'Neal was later signed by Prince to the Warner Bros. label, although a disagreement with Prince led him to leave the band, to which he was replaced by Morris Day. Shortly after leaving the band, Alexander O'Neal formed a rock and roll band called Alexander. The band then recorded a 12” single entitled “Playroom,” for a Chicago based independent record label. Three years later, in 1984, Alexander O'Neal was signed to Tabu Records, a record label belonging to Clarence Avant. Whilst he was working there, he did some backing vocals for other artists on the same label, such as The SOS Band and Cherrelle.

O'Neal's releases

O’Neal released his self-titled debut album in 1985, the album tracks included three hit singles that reached the top twenty of the R&B Singles Chart. During this time, he also scored his first R&B top ten single with “Saturday Love,” a duet he had recorded with Cherrelle, to which the song reached #2 in the US and #6 in the UK Single Charts. In 1987, he released his second album “Hearsay,” to which his hit single “Fake” was born, reaching #1 in the R&B Singles Chart. In 1992, he released his first greatest hits album which proved to be successful “This Thing Called Love: The Greatest Hits of Alexander O’Neal,” it was a top ten album in the UK. In 1993, O’Neal released “Love Makes No Sense,” and in 1995, he released “The Best of Alexander O’Neal.” Moreover, in 1996 “Lovers Again,” was released. After having a break, O’Neal released a new album in 2001 with Eagle Records “Sega of a Married Man.” In 2005 he released a live album, “Alexander O’Neal Live at Hammersmith Apollo,” a collection of many of his songs from throughout his career.

What he did next

Since then, O’Neal has participated on the reality British singing contest “Just the Two of Us,” in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, he released “Alex Loves,” his first studio album in six years! And during that year, he also took part in UK reality TV show Celebrity Wife Swap, where he swapped his wife Cynthia with broadcaster and TV personality Jilly Goolden.