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Born To Do It
Background:
R&B sensation Craig David is probably the best selling R&B singer in Europe with
20 million albums sold at age 25. Making his recording debut with Damage, he
soon gained prominence following his partnership with The Artful Dodger, thanks
to the club smash “Re-Rewind.” This fresh-faced native of Southampton, England,
received even more recognition with the release of his crossover hit album, Born
To Do It (2000), which spawned such hits as “Fill Me In,” “Woman Trouble,” “7
Days” and “Walking Away.” It was followed by Slicker Than Your Average in 2002
and The Story Goes... in 2005.
Outside the spotlight, 6’ 1” tall David, who was named one of Channel 4’s “100
Worst Britons” in 2003, is a huge admirer of the Southampton Football Club. He
occasionally can be discovered wearing the clubs sport shirt during gigs. In
2005, David was attracted with a KFC bucket meal while at a music awards
following disclosures that his trademark tea-cosy hat was made from badger fur.
PETA is considered to have been behind the assault.
Caribbean Roots
Childhood and Family:
Craig David was born Craig Ashley David on May 5, 1981, in Southampton,
Hampshire, England. His father is an Afro-Grenadian and his mother is from
Jamaica. He began to write lyrics from a very young age, and had worked as MC on
pirate radio and in local clubs by age 14. Young Craig also found himself
pursuing a successful DJ career before finally embarking as a foremost UK
recording artist.
Fill Me In
Career:
The Southampton native Craig David, who once worked as an MC and a DJ, first
earned success when he started working in London at age 15. He wrote a B-side
for British R&B group Damage’s cover of the Eric Clapton song “Wonderful
Tonight,” recorded a version of the Human League classic “Human” and rose to
fame after collaborating with garage act The Artful Dodger on the instant club
hit “Re-Rewind.” Released off the Artful Dodger album It’s All About The
Stragglers, the track reached No. 2 on the UK charts in 2000 and remained in the
top 75 for seventeen weeks.
Lured by the success, David started a solo career by releasing his first single,
“Fill Me In,” in 2000. The song soared up to number one, making David the
youngest solo male artist to reach No. 1 in U.K. He again gained success with
the release of the second single “Woman Trouble,” a duet with Artful Dodger,
which hit No. 6 in the UK. His full-length album, Born To Do It, which was
written almost totally by David and Mark Hill of The Artful Dodger, followed
later that same year and was a huge hit. In February 2002, the R&B singer was
nominated in six categories at the Brit Awards.
The album’s victory led to American release of “Fill Me In” in 2001, in which it
ripped apart the Billboard Hot 100 chart and landed at No. 15. Two months later,
Born To Do It was released in the U.S. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200
and received platinum certification. Single “7 Days” became a top ten hit in
America though “Walking Away,” which was a top three in UK and a top five in
Australia, failed to reach the top forty in the US. The latter single also
marked David’s last single to chart there.
David’s sophomore effort, Slicker Than Your Average, hit the music store in 2002
and fared noticeably less well than the first. Four of the six singles released
from the album, “What’s Your Flava,” “Hidden Agenda,” “Rise And Fall” (featuring
Sting) and “Spanish,” were top ten hits in the UK. His next single, “World
Filled With Love,” hit No. 15 in 2003. It was followed by the even more
unsatisfactory chart performing of “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” which reached
No. 43 in the UK and became David’s first single to miss the top 40 in Aussie.
Unfortunately, none of the six singles charted in America.
After his record label, Telstar Records, went broke, David moved to Warner
Music, with which he worked for his third album, The Story Goes.... The album
was released in the UK, Asia, Australia and other territories in August 2005,
but not in the USA. The lead single, “All The Way,” peaked at No. 3 in the UK,
and the second single, “Don’t Love You No More (I’m Sorry),” spent 15 weeks in
the UK top 75, becoming his longest running single in the charts since “Rewind.”
Unfortunately, the album’s third single, “Unbelievable,” opened and reached No.
18 in March 2006. The Story Goes finally sold four million worldwide.
Awards:
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