Marilyn - Calling Your Name. Top Of The Pops 1983

Nice quality video recorded from Top Of The Pops 1983. Peter Robinson (born 3 November 1962), better known as Marilyn, is a British pop singer who achieved international fame in the 1980s with his hit song "Calling Your Name".

While Boy George went on to form Culture Club in 1981 and secured a recording contract with Virgin Records, Marilyn was still scouting for a recording contract and had relocated to Los Angeles for some time to work on an album for James Cleveland. He teamed up with songwriter and pop entrepreneur Paul Caplin, with whom he co-wrote "Calling Your Name". By this point, Culture Club had made a commercial impact with their debut album, and record companies were seriously looking for artists with a similar cross-dressing image.

Following an appearance in the video for Eurythmics' hit single, "Who's That Girl?" in 1983, which garnered him considerable press attention, Marilyn was signed to Phonogram Records and released his debut single, "Calling Your Name", in October 1983. The single reached No.4 in the UK, No.4 in Australia, and No.1 in Japan. The lyrics to the song were reportedly aimed at Boy George, with whom Marilyn was now having a stormy off-and-on friendship. He also released the singles "Cry and Be Free" and "You Don't Love Me" in 1984, but with less success.

On a promotional tour of Australia in late summer 1984, Marilyn was pictured in The Sun newspaper sporting a black eye. A brawl had erupted in a bar, and Marilyn had been punched by a local man. He cancelled all engagements and returned to England.

In November 1984, Marilyn took part in the Band Aid charity record project "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with various other musicians of the era in aid of the Ethiopian Famine Appeal.

After much delay, Marilyn's debut album Despite Straight Lines was released in June 1985. The album featured his three previous hits and its release was led by a new single, "Baby U Left Me (In the Cold)". However, both the new single and album were commercial failures in the UK, as was a fifth single from the album, "Pray For That Sunshine".

By this time, Marilyn's on-and-off friendship with Boy George had become increasingly strained due to fame and drug-related problems. On 9 July 1986, Marilyn (along with Boy George's brother, Kevin O'Dowd) appeared at Marylebone Magistrates Court after being arrested and charged with possession of heroin. The resultant media fallout of Marilyn's drug addiction and his publicised disputes with Boy George further damaged his public image. Coupled with the changing tastes of the public who had begun to eschew the New Romantic artists as an early 80s fad, Marilyn's music career never recovered. He was dropped from Phonogram Records and his finances were drained to the point of having to work regular jobs outside of the music industry. After failed attempts to restart his career throughout the rest of the 1980s, he then virtually retired from the industry until 2000 when he made a series of club appearances and recorded a new single (a cover of the Dennis Brown song "How Could I Live?") for the Desilu Records label in the UK. However, due to various conflicts between Marilyn and the company, the single was withdrawn from commercial release, though some 12" promotional copies exist.

In October 2005, Marilyn appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders?, in which he discussed his ongoing mental health problems including his struggle with agoraphobia and long-term drug use. Ravaged by his addiction and looking extremely unwell, Marilyn struggled to be coherent in the interview and, in stark contrast to his youth and glamour during the New Romantic era, the documentary highlighted the devastating effects that fame, fortune, addiction and mental illness have taken on him.

As a result of his health and financial problems, Marilyn now lives a relatively secluded life with his mother in North London. In November 2007, Marilyn was using his official MySpace blog to ask fans to send him money so that he could buy a new computer for himself.

In 2010, Marilyn was portrayed by the actor Freddie Fox (son of Edward Fox) in the BBC television film Worried About The Boy, a dramatisation of Boy George's rise to fame in the early 1980s.

In the summer of 2010, Nick Cabrera announced that Desilu Records, America would formally release Marilyn's recording of "How Could I Live" and its Jamaican and UK remixes by Andrew Griffiths and "Kinky" Roland with an additional new 2011 US Remix. The tracks will be released as downloads on the US iTunes site.
Please visit my other Channel. Keep Rockin!.

[SharonThomas-su]

My best friend Lisa Armstrong who's sadly passed met him on a BA flight to Australia and brought me back his Autograph x

[justm]

Loved this song! Was 12yrs old in 83.damn i miss the 80s 😢

[MissTootle]

How can this song be 40yrs old 😮 I was 11 & so in love with Marilyn. I had a scrapbook full of his pics, that I'd cut out of magazines 😁

[dtrzlzq]

Drop dead gorgeous, talented, humble, a survivor, what more could you ask for? Thank the Heavens above for you Pete and Boy George. You are both so very inspiring and individual. This world needs beautiful human beings like just like you or even as close as possible would do. By the way, when l'm calling your name why don't you hear?💋

[dags.]

Pop/soul magic - gives a real good feeling. RIP for backup singer, the talented Claudia Fountaine passed away in 2018.

[jenniferburgess]

Just watched a BBC clip on the breakfast show with Boy George and Marilyn. Great friends! Marilyn looks AMAZING then and now.
Beautiful Soul🎉🎉🎉🎉

[jaz]

Omg thank you so much I used to love this song, I still do & I'm 50. Kid's today think all this stuff is new: guys in make up, dresses - but we grew up with it in the 80's & it was just part of life. Marilyn had a really great voice too🥰

[barbieblacksheep]

30+ years later Marilyn is still awesome !

[JoanneFerreira-ku]

I always loved his voice. Easy on the eyes too.

[russellphillips]

for some strange reason he was underated ...and to be honest he was up there with the best brilliant times the

[ScrittiSparkle]

one of my fav songs ever, since i was a teen, im 50 now

[therealgaragegirls]

In the mid-80s, Marilyn meant more to me than I can ever put into words. Love that he was included in the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" <3

[siobhanduffy]

Total love homage to Marilyn xxxx This song is so groovy xx

[chuckynickolodean]

I used to fancy him, when I was in school, I was 12 in 83, I am 49 now, the early to mid eighties were the best...

[apjp]

That’s so cool, I loved this when he released this, his looks were amazing 😻😻

[a]

I still live off the distant memory of meeting Marilyn on a street behind Oxford Street in 1986! He was gorgeous, a vision & charming to a gaggle of college girls smitten by his beauty❤️

[teresacollins]

Good grief, he was stunningly gorgeous...just finished Boy George's autobiography Take It Like A Man, what a great read, Marilyn is featured a lot in it, not always in a good way!

[jackiecarroll]

Love this song still have this and still play it still one of my faves ❤️

[charles]

This was a real happy feel good song, loved it then and now .

[beckiyeah]

This is my most favourite ever Marilyn video I feel he enjoyed the performance a lot and therefore so did I! Such a wonderful aura about him as fans we all wish to be his bestie x