Pablo Cruise
Pablo Cruise is an American pop/rock band from San Francisco currently composed of David Jenkins (guitar and vocals), Cory Lerios (keyboards and vocals), Steve Price (drums) and Larry Antonino (bass and vocals). Formed in 1973, the band released eight studio albums over the next decade, during which time five singles reached the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The group underwent several personnel changes and split up in 1986. The original lineup—Jenkins, Lerios, Price and Bud Cockrell—reunited briefly in 2004. And they continue to tour today with three out of the original four members present.
Pablo Cruise | |
|---|---|
 Pablo Cruise founding members | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Genres | Soft rock, pop rock, blue-eyed soul |
| Years active | 1973–1986, 1996–present |
| Labels | A&M |
| Associated acts | Stoneground, It's a Beautiful Day, Southern Pacific |
| Website | www |
| Members | David Jenkins Cory Lerios Steve Price Larry Antonino Robbie Wyckoff |
| Past members | Bud Cockrell Bruce Day John Pierce Angelo Rossi David Perper Stef Birnbaum Ken Emerson George Gabriel |
History
Pablo Cruise began in San Francisco, in 1973, with former members of Stoneground (Cory Lerios on keyboards and vocals, David Jenkins as vocalist and on guitar and Steve Price on drums) and It's a Beautiful Day (Bud Cockrell on bass and vocals).[1] Lerios had formed a band while at Palo Alto High School. His classmate, Steve Price, signed on as a roadie (because he owned a van), then joined the group on drums when their drummer left. They were eventually to find their way into Stoneground, where they were joined by Jenkins (originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan).
Initially, there were many fans who were left wondering who Pablo Cruise really was. When asked the question, the band, which is a quartet, would answer, "He's the guy in the middle." When asked what Pablo Cruise meant, the band would say that "Pablo represents an honest, real, down- to-earth individual; and Cruise depicts his fun-loving and easygoing attitude towards life."[2]
The band released its first album in August 1975, a minor success self-titled Pablo Cruise,[3] and their second album in April 1976, titled Lifeline. Their second album achieved slightly greater success than their first but still only managed to chart at No. 139 in the United States. The instrumental "Zero to Sixty in Five" from Lifeline was used as theme music for various sports television shows. That success encouraged the band to try their hand at more film and TV scoring.[4]
1977's A Place in the Sun was the turning point in the band's career as they finally entered the mainstream music scene with hit singles "Whatcha Gonna Do?" (#6) and the title track "A Place in the Sun" (#42), the album peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard charts.
Further success and lineup changes
In the middle of 1977, Bud Cockrell left to form a duo with his wife and former It's a Beautiful Day bandmate, Pattie Santos, and was replaced by Bruce Day (who had played in a band with Carlos Santana before his Santana days).
Day's first album with the band was the RIAA platinum-selling 1978 album Worlds Away, which spawned the hits "Love Will Find a Way" and "Don't Want to Live Without It".[5] It also featured a cover of Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen's hit single "I Go to Rio" and the follow-up album was 1979's Part of the Game that spawned the hit "I Want You Tonight".[5] Also that year, Pablo Cruise contributed the song "Reach For The Top" to the movie Dreamer and the following year, they placed "What Have You Got to Lose" with the film Inside Moves.
Day's tenure was short-lived and after he left the band in 1980, he was replaced by famous session bassist John Pierce who, alongside newly added second guitarist Angelo Rossi, debuted on the 1981 album Reflector and it spawned the band's last Top 40 hit "Cool Love".[5]
In mid-1981, Price left suddenly and was initially succeeded by Donny Baldwin, who had played with Elvin Bishop and would move on to Jefferson Starship by the summer of 1982. David Perper was next to take over the drum throne and Angelo Rossi was replaced by Stef Birnbaum (aka Stef Burns) after just one album.
In 1983, the group released Out of Our Hands, which featured a change of sound to a more "'80s pop keyboard direction", with Lerios bringing in more synthesizers and downplaying the piano, which had until then been a characteristic of the group's sound, and Price played drums on two songs. The band then toured again that year with another new member, Jorge Bermudez, on vocals and percussion. Mostly due to the rising popularity of new wave, the album struggled with sales. By the end of 1984, Pierce, Birnbaum and Bermudez had left.
1985 attempted reunion and hiatus
In 1985, the four original members, Jenkins, Lerios, Price and Cockrell, reunited hoping to score a new record deal. It was not to be, however, and the group called it quits in 1986.[6]
Jenkins moved on to join country rockers Southern Pacific in 1987, alongside former Doobie Brothers members Keith Knudsen and John McFee and Creedence Clearwater Revival bass player Stu Cook. After leaving Southern Pacific in 1989, Jenkins relocated to Hawaii where he was introduced to Hawaiian artist Kapono Beamer and began writing music with him. This eventually led to their album Cruisin' On Hawaiian Time (2006), a collection of songs dedicated to the Hawaiian Islands.
In the meantime, Cory Lerios worked on movie and TV scores, providing the music for the popular '90s series Baywatch, among many others.
1996 partial reunion
Around 1996, Jenkins and Cockrell reunited once again as Pablo Cruise, but Lerios and Price were unable to rejoin at the time. Keyboardist Kincaid Miller and drummer Kevin Wells were brought in to replace them, and percussionist James Henry also appeared with the band as an occasional special guest from 1999 to 2008. Additionally, second guitarist Ken Emerson and two additional backup singers, Caroline and Renita, were also recruited (briefly in 2002) for added stage attraction. Drummer Billy Johnson (ex-Santana) temporarily sat in for Wells in 2002.
Former bassist Bruce Day died on June 30, 1999 in Windsor, California from unknown causes at the age of 48.
2004 to present
In June 2004, all four original Pablo members were back together playing again at Steve Price's wedding. This led to three of the four—Jenkins, Lerios and Price—deciding to reconvene permanently. Cockrell was not involved this time and George Gabriel joined on bass and vocals. During his time away from Pablo Cruise, Price went on to become a leading figure in providing E-learning and also formed his own aerial photography company. Gabriel left Pablo Cruise in November 2009 and was replaced by veteran bassist Larry Antonino (who has worked with Air Supply, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Laws and many others) in 2010.
Bud Cockrell died on March 6, 2010 after complications from diabetes. He was 59.
On November 8, 2011, Pablo Cruise released their very first live album, It's Good to Be Live, on the Red Recording label. The package included both a live CD and DVD. The live performances were taken from concerts performed at the Blue Goose in Loomis, CA on July 9 and 10, 2010. The CD also featured new versions of their songs "A Place in the Sun" (featuring fellow Red Recording artist Katrina) and "Love Will Find a Way" (with Ty Taylor of Vintage Trouble).
In 2015, Cory Lerios released an EP, If I Could Change Anything It Would Be You!, under the name Cory Charles.
In 2017, the band was joined by singer/percussionist Robbie Wyckoff who had appeared with Pink Floyd's Roger Waters on his The Wall Live tour.
The band continues to tour, mainly in and around California.
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Pablo Cruise among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[7]
Band members
Current members
- David Jenkins – guitar, vocals (1973–1986, 1996–present)
- Cory Lerios – keyboards, synthesizers, vocals (1973–1986, 2004–present)
- Larry Antonino – bass, vocals (2010–present)
- Steve Price – drums, percussion (1973–1981, 2004–present)
- Robbie Wyckoff – percussion, vocals (2017-present)
Past members
- Bud Cockrell – bass, vocals (1973–1977, 1985–1986, 1996–2004; died 2010)
- Bruce Day – bass, vocals (1977–1980; died 1999)
- John Pierce – bass, vocals (1980–1984)
- Angelo Rossi – guitar, vocals (1980–1983)
- David Perper – drums, percussion (1982–1984)
- Stef Birnbaum – guitar, vocals (1983–1984) (aka Stef Burns)
- Jorge Bermudez - vocals, percussion (1983–1984)
- Kincaid Miller - keyboards (1996–2004)
- Kevin Wells - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1996–2002, 2002–2004)
- James Henry - percussion (occasionally 1999–2008)
- Billy Johnson - drums, percussion (2002)
- Ken Emerson - guitar, vocals (2002)
- Renita - backup vocals (2002)
- Caroline - backup vocals (2002)
- George Gabriel – bass, vocals (2004–2009)
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak positions | Certifications (sales threshold) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | |||||||||
| 1975 | Pablo Cruise
|
174 | |||||||
| 1976 | Lifeline
|
139 | |||||||
| 1977 | A Place in the Sun
|
19 |
| ||||||
| 1978 | Worlds Away
|
6 |
| ||||||
| 1979 | Part of the Game
|
39 |
| ||||||
| 1981 | Reflector
|
34 | |||||||
| 1983 | Out of Our Hands
|
— | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
Compilation albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1988 | Classics Volume 26
|
| 2001 | The Best of Pablo Cruise
|
Live albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2011 | It's Good to Be Live
|
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | CAN | Australia | |||||||
| 1975 | "Island Woman" | 105 | — | — | Pablo Cruise | ||||
| "What Does It Take" | — | — | — | ||||||
| 1976 | "I Think It's Finally Over" | — | — | — | Lifeline | ||||
| "Crystal" | — | — | — | ||||||
| 1977 | "Whatcha Gonna Do?" | 6 | 1 | — | A Place in the Sun | ||||
| "A Place in the Sun" | 42 | 36 | — | ||||||
| 1978 | "Never Had a Love" | 87 | 87 | — | |||||
| "Love Will Find a Way" | 6 | 5 | 8 | Worlds Away | |||||
| "Don't Want to Live Without It" | 21 | 10 | 76 | ||||||
| 1979 | "I Go to Rio" | 46 | 39 | — | |||||
| "I Want You Tonight" | 19 | 18 | 43 | Part of the Game | |||||
| 1981 | "Cool Love" | 13 | — | 91 | Reflector | ||||
| "Slip Away" | 75 | — | — | ||||||
| 1983 | "Will You, Won't You" | 107 | — | — | Out of Our Hands | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
See also
References
- Pablo Cruise at AllMusic, accessed April 6, 2007
- About Pablo Cruise Archived 2006-10-28 at the Wayback Machine
- 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Pablo Cruise at AllMusic
- "Spartanburg Herald-Journal". News.google.com. November 23, 1979. p. 14.
- Pablo Cruise > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles at AllMusic
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2006-09-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Rosen, Jody (June 25, 2019). "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
External links
Authority control  |
|
|---|