Murray Head

Best known for his 1984 new wave hit "One Night in Bangkok," English actor and singer Murray Head was born in London on March 5, 1946 to a filmmaker father and actor mother. He began writing songs at a young age and kicked off his performing career aged 12 with appearances in various radio plays. His first big break came in 1970 when he was invited by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber to sing the role of Judas Iscariot on the soundtrack to their musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Recorded with the Trinidad Singers, the song "Superstar" shot to number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1971 and pushed his talents into the spotlight. He landed a lead role in the Oscar-nominated 1971 fim Sunday Bloody Sunday, alongside Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson, and spent the rest of the '70s releasing albums of soft and folk-y rock fare: 1972 concept album Nigel Lived, 1976's Say It Ain't So, and 1979's Between Us. He re-entered the stage in the '80s, with an appearance on the soundtrack for the musical Chess in 1984 assuring his celebrity and spawning a smash hit in "One Night in Bangkok," for which he assumed a New York accent and topped the charts in several countries, including South Africa, West Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Australia, reaching number three in both Canada and the US and number 12 in the UK. However, despite putting out albums consistently throughout the '80s, including seventh effort Sooner of Later (1986), his success as a recording artist plateaued until the following decade when a 1993 duet with Marie Carmen, "Une femme un homme," gave him a hit in French-speaking Canada. The rest of the '90s and the start of the new millenium were spent racking up acting credits, with appearances on UK television shows Doctors, The Bill, and Casualty among these, while he also continued to put out new music, including 2012 album My Back Pages. A remastered version of "One Night in Bangkok" was issued in 2016.