Craig David
Template:Infobox musical artist 2
Craig Ashley David (born 5 May, 1981) is a British R&B singer.
Biography and music career
Craig David was born in Holyrood, Southampton, Hampshire, England to a Grenadian father and an English-Jewish mother [1] and attended Bellemoor School.
His earliest exposure to recording came when he worked on a B-side to British R&B group Damage's cover of the Eric Clapton song Wonderful Tonight. He then started doing vocals for a few tracks with garage act The Artful Dodger, of which the song "Rewind", released off the Artful Dodger album It's All About The Stragglers, hit #2 on the UK charts in 2000, spending seventeen weeks in the top 75 and paving the way for a solo career. His first single, "Fill Me In", made him the youngest solo male artist to reach #1 in the UK (he was nineteen at the time). This was the first of a string of four top ten singles from his debut album, Born To Do It, which was released the same year and hit #1, going on to sell 1.8 million copies.
The success of his debut, which was written almost entirely by Craig David and Mark Hill of The Artful Dodger, led to the US release of "Fill Me In" in May 2001, where it reached # 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Born To Do It was released in the US on July 17, 2001, peaking at #11 on the Billboard 200 and reaching platinum status, selling 1 million copies. "7 Days" reached the top ten in the US, although "Walking Away", which had reached the top three in the UK and the top five in Australia, missed the top forty in the US and was the last of his singles to chart there.
The follow-up album, Slicker Than Your Average, was released in 2002 and fared considerably less well than the debut. None of the six singles released from the album charted in the US, but the first four continued his streak of top ten hits in the UK, bringing his total to nine consecutive top ten hits until "World Filled With Love" hit #15 in 2003 and spent only four weeks on the chart, his shortest chart run thus far. This was followed by the even more disappointing chart performance of "You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til The Well Runs Dry)", which hit #42 in the UK, spending a total of two weeks on the chart. It was also his first single to miss the top 40 in Australia, charting at an abysmal #180.
David's career took a blow when his record label, Telstar Records, went bankrupt. He later signed on with Warner Music and put together his third album, The Story Goes..., which was released in the UK, Australia, Asia and other territories in August 2005, but not in the USA (it is, however, available as a download on iTunes).
The first single, "All The Way", returned him to the top three, and the second single, "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)", tied with "7 Days" as his longest running single in the charts since "Rewind", spending 15 weeks inside the UK top 75. However, the album's third single, "Unbelievable", debuted and peaked at #18 in March 2006. The fourth single was to be a remixed version of "Hypnotic" by DJ Premier, However, this was recently cancelled.[citation needed]
Following rumours which surfaced on 31st August 2006, claiming that Craig David had left Warner Music/Atlantic Records by mutual agreement due to the failure of Unbelievable and musical differences, it was confirmed that he is still with Warner Music, although his US label has changed from Atlantic to Sire Records.
Word has it that Craig is currently working on his 4th album, along with a number of collaborations, although these rumours remain unconfirmed.
Discography
Albums
- 2000 Born To Do It #1 UK [UK. 1.8 million, #11 US (2001 release)[U.S. Platinum], #2 AUS [8 million worldwide]
- 2002 Slicker Than Your Average #4 UK [UK. 520.000], #32 US [U.S. Gold], #5 AUS [4 million worldwide]
- 2005 The Story Goes... #5 UK [UK. 270.000] ,#9 AUS [3 million worldwide]
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles | US Hot 100 | US R&B/Hip-Hop | AUS Singles | |||
| 1999 | Rewind | 2 | - | - | - | Born To Do It (US Version) |
| 2000 | Fill Me In | 1 | 15 | 19 | 6 | Born To Do It |
| 2000 | Woman Trouble (featuring Robbie Craig) |
6 | - | - | - | It's All About The Stragglers |
| 2000 | "7 Days" | 1 | 10 | 52 | 4 | Born To Do It |
| 2001 | "Walking Away" | 3 | 44 | - | 5 | Born To Do It |
| 2001 | "Rendezvous" | 8 | - | - | 28 | Born To Do It |
| 2002 | "What's Your Flava" | 8 | - | - | 10 | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2003 | "Hidden Agenda" | 10 | - | - | 24 | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2003 | "Personal" | - | - | - | - | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2003 | "Rise And Fall" (featuring Sting) |
2 | - | - | 6 | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2003 | "Spanish" | 8 | - | - | - | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2003 | "World Filled With Love" | 15 | - | - | 32 | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2004 | "You Don't Miss Your Water ('Til The Well Runs Dry)" | 42 | - | - | 180 | Slicker Than Your Average |
| 2005 | "All The Way" | 3 | - | - | 31 | The Story Goes... |
| 2005 | "Don't Love You No More (I'm Sorry)" | 4 | - | - | 49 | The Story Goes... |
| 2006 | "Unbelievable" | 18 | - | - | 96 | The Story Goes... |
Trivia
- The music video for "What's Your Flava?" is a parody of the children's movie classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where Craig sponsors a "lottery", four females discover "golden CD's" (similar to the "Golden Tickets" in the movie), during the tour, three of the four females misbehave and disappear from the tour (similar to the children, other than Charlie Bucket, in the movie), and Craig and the winner end the video in a glass elevator.
- In Avid Merrion's Channel 4 Series Bo' Selecta, Craig was parodied as having a Leeds accent and a pet peregrine falcon (both reminiscent of the character of Billy Casper from the novel Kes), and frequently using the catchphrase "Proper Bo'!" The parody of Craig was the central character used throughout the various series. This has since haunted Craig so much so that he even blamed the show for his lack of recent success, although Craig did appear in the closing episode of the second series. Also, 'Merrion' performed his impersonation onstage to a real Craig David gig audience, much to their bemusement.
- Famous singer/songwriter Elton John once said "If there is a better singer in England than Craig David, then I am Margaret Thatcher."[2]
- Has worked with numerous American artists such as Mos Def, Nate Dogg and DJ Premier on a remix to his hit "7 Days", has worked with numerous American artists as Twista, Jadakiss, Usher and Chingy on a song called "Static".
- Someone tried to sing his song Walking Away on RTE's You're A Star in Ireland but he didn't get anywhere in the competition.