O'BRYAN

'O'Bryan McCoy Burnette Jr.' (born to O’Bryan and Glenice Burnette at Pender County Memorial Hospital in Burgaw, North Carolina on December 5, 1961) began his career in the music business at age 18. At the time, Burnette was doing vocals while fellow musician Melvin Lee Davis was playing bass in the Second Baptist Young Adult Choir in Santa Ana, California. A lady by the name Melanie, a friend of Davis, introduced Burnette to musician Ron Kersey. Kersey, who had worked in Philadelphia with music groups such as the Trammps in the 1970's, was looking for members for a new group he was forming, called Hamercy. Kersey accepted O'Bryan into the group as lead singer. The group quickly fell apart, after which Kersey introduced O'Bryan to Soul Train impresario Don Cornelius.

Contents

Early career

Latter career

Early career

Following this introduction, Cornelius presented O'Bryan to Varnell Johnson of Capital Records whom signed him to the label.The following four years on Capitol Records, O'Bryan released four albums and nine singles, which all had slots on the R&B charts.
He released his debut album ''Doin' Alright'' in 1982. As a multi-instrumentalist, many listeners considered his uptempo tracks bared subtle resemblances to Prince, but he treaded far closer to the urban contemporary mainstream on his ballads. Although the mid-paced title track proved the most enduring to many fans, the album yielded a big dance floor hit in the form of 'The Gigolo' which reached number five on the R&B charts and number 57 on the pop charts (his only single to chart on the latter). It also contained what many fans considered an outstanding cover of the Four Tops 'Still Water (Love)'.
In 1983, his second album ''You and I'' was released, the title track being an excellent version of a beautiful love song penned by the great Stevie Wonder. The instrumental 'Soft Touch' also proved to be a popular choice from this second album. It also contained the track 'Soul Train's A Coming' which was used as the theme song for the performance theme show Soul Train from 1983 to 1987.
In 1984, O'Bryan released his third LP ''Be My Lover'' which included the hit balled 'Lady I Love You'. A major dance floor single release from the album was the funky groove 'Lovelite', a number one hit on Billboard's R&B singles chart which many consider to be the equal to any of Prince's early funk.
He released his fourth and final album on Capitol, ''Surrender'' in 1986 which included the dance hit "Tenderoni". It reached the R&B Billboard top 40 and was considered a club hit in early 1987. Since then, he has parted ways from Capitol and went on a hiatus for two decades. Despite the apparent success that O'Bryan has experienced on Capitol Records during the middle of the 1980s, his tracks still received airplay on selected radio stations worldwide.

Latter career

After what seems like an eternity, O’Bryan returned on Valentine’s Day 2007.
A very long awaited return by his true fans.
His album, simply entitled F1RST signifies the first of many to come.
O'Bryan has matured well and so has his music. F1RST is full of lovely slow and mid-tempo jams. It is the story of a journey through a love affair told in music and words. The entire collection features beautiful arrangements, soulful synths and first-class song writing, production and vocals.
Beautifully written and musically well crafted by this talented producer and his long time friend, guitar player and Co-Producer, Romerico Geroso (Romy), these songs are full of emotion and melody. It's NU-soul with a difference, avoiding the clunky hip hop beats and handclaps. The production and arrangements throughout are first class and reveal a musical talent which was only hinted at in his early years. It has been described as “The performance of not only this year, but a number of years to come.