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All Music Guide:
Soft rock singer Robbie Dupree was born Robert Dupuis in Brooklyn in 1947, and began his singing career in street-corner doo-wop groups. He later became infatuated with blues and R&B, and in 1970 began performing original songs around Greenwich Village clubs (and even played with future Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers). In 1973, he moved to the town of Woodstock, where he played with a number of local musicians and bands, as well as working on his songwriting. In 1978, he moved to Los Angeles in search of a record deal, and met up with old friends Peter Bunetta and Rick Chudacoff, who became his production team. Singing a soft style of blue-eyed soul that was eminently compatible with the adult contemporary radio format, Dupree signed with Elektra and issued his self-titled debut in 1980. Lead single "Steal Away" was a Top Ten smash, and the follow-up "Hot Rod Hearts" also reached the Top 20. Dupree was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy, but after his 1981 follow-up LP Street Corner Heroes and the accompanying chart single "Brooklyn Girls," he stopped recording for a while, simply waiting out a contract he was dissatisfied with.
Finally, in 1989, Dupree returned on Capitol Records with the album Carried Away. It didn't perform as well as his earlier work, and Dupree eventually wound up signing with the Japanese label Polystar, for whom he recorded Walking on Water in 1993. Distributed in the U.S. by Miramar, the record did produce a couple of minor adult contemporary hits in the title track and "Goodbye to L.A." Smoke and Mirrors followed in 1995, featuring keyboardist David Sancious, with whom Dupree later toured as a duo. During the '90s, Dupree also expanded into the production arena, working on records for Artie Traum and longtime collaborator Bill LaBounty, among others. 1997 brought the limited-edition EP Vintage, and in late 1998 Dupree issued the double-live album All Night Long, which looked back over his entire catalog. 2001 brought another limited-edition EP, appropriately titled Vintage, Vol. 2. 2008 saw Dupree issue Time and Tide on his own Robbie Dupree Records imprint.
Wikipedia:
Robert Dupuis (born December 23, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York), better known by his stage name Robbie Dupree, is an American singer-songwriter best known for his 1980 top ten pop hit, "Steal Away".
Dupree originally became popular with his breakout hit, "Steal Away", which hit #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 1980. Thereafter, he scored another hit with "Hot Rod Hearts", which rose to #15 in October 1980. Dupree's final single to make the Billboard charts, "Brooklyn Girls", peaked at #54 in June 1981.
In 1987, Dupree contributed the song "Girls in Cars" to Piledriver - The Wrestling Album 2, a collection of theme songs for World Wrestling Entertainment (then known as the World Wrestling Federation). The tag team Strike Force (Tito Santana and Rick Martel) used "Girls in Cars" as their entrance music.
In 2010, Dupree signed with Spectra Records and released the album "Time and Tide" featuring former E Street Band keyboards player David Sancious. On May 21, 2010 Dupree performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as part of Jimmy's ongoing tribute to Yacht Rock: the smooth West Coast sound of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 2011, Robbie Dupree toured as part of the All Star Rock concert series. The tour featured John Cafferty, Orleans, David Pack (Ambrosia), John Ford Coley, Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie, Joe Lynn Turner and Joe Bouchard.
In 2012, Dupree released a new album, this time an EP entitled "Arc of a Romance." A collection of timeless classics spanning over the last 5 decades.
