Eddie Murphy is an extremely famous actor and comedian, known for his many impersonations of different icons. He has imitated many singers, but can Murphy actually sing?
Eddie Murphy can sing. Apart from his different impressions of singing idols, Murphy is a recorded artist who has released three albums during his early career in the late 80s and early 90s before choosing to focus more on acting.
Read on to find out more about Eddie Murphy’s albums, how music has always been a part of his career as an actor and comedian, and his recent return to music.
Solo Artist
While he was starting his career as a comic, Murphy also provided backup vocals for The BusBoys when they were featured as the musical guests on an episode of Saturday Night Live. The band also opened for Murphy on his standup comedy tour, Delirious.
Beyond backup vocals, Murphy became a solo artist in the early 1980s with the release of “Boogie in Your Butt,” which was ranked 56 on the US Hot R&B songs chart. He then released two singles, “Party All the Time,” produced by Rick James and “Put Your Mouth on Me.”
“Party All the Time” went platinum in the US in 1991, and was a part of his first album from 1985, How Could It Be. On the album, Murphy also performs two tracks written and produced by Stevie Wonder–“Do I” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.
The album also marks Murphy winning the million-dollar bet between him and his longtime idol who originally inspired him to become a comedian, Richard Pryor, that Murphy couldn’t sing.
“Put Your Mouth on Me” was a part of his 1989 album, So Happy. This album was produced by Murphy, Nile Rodgers, and Larry Blackmon and made it to #70 on the Billboard 200.
Murphy’s third album, titled Love’s Alright, was released in 1993. The King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, worked with Murphy on the song “Whatzupwitu,” because he thought the song spread a positive message.
After his third album, Murphy took a break from his solo career, but while he was a voice actor in the Shrek series, he recorded several songs used in the films. Other than that, he hadn’t released any albums or songs for years–that is, until 2013.
Return to Music
In 2013, Murphy released the reggae single “Red Light,” featuring Snoop Lion (another stage name of Snoop Dogg) after a break from music that lasted 20 years.
In an interview from 1993, he said, “If I never sell another record, I’ll still write two or three songs a week… I’ll do that ‘til I die.” And that seems to be exactly what he’s been doing, until “Red Light.”
“All I’ve been doing is making music. I haven’t been working on films, haven’t been developing movies, or any of that,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2013. Now that he’s mostly retired from doing films, he now wants to focus again on music.
“I didn’t want to leave it at ‘Party All the Time.’ It’s a good song, but I didn’t want to leave it there,” he said, explaining why he felt inspired to release his music again after so long a pause. “Red Light” was part of a larger album called 9, which he said doesn’t fit into a single category.
“It’s everything on there. I’m the artist when I’m doing music that I am when I’m acting. I’m everything,” he said, referring to his many different voices and characters. The album was highly anticipated by longtime fans, who tweeted posts like this one, predicting that the album will be “album of the year,” and this one promising to get the full album when it came out.
Check out the YouTube video below to watch the music video of Eddie Murphy’s song, “Red Light,” featuring Snoop Dogg.
ncG1vNJzZmiblaGyo63NrK6eqqNjsLC5jpyYp2WVmbGqsYymrKuomK56tLXNoGY%3D