Skinner, Jolyon

Arranger, bassist, keyboardist, producer, singer-songwriter and synthesizer player who worked with Touch on their 1977 LP, Energizer. In 1978, he played bass and sang background vocals on Alvin Fields’ Special Delivery. He co-wrote “Disco Ride” with Eltesa Weathersby and Michael Zager and it was recorded by The Spinners on their album, Dancin’ and Lovin’.

In 1981, he arranged and played bass and synthesizer for Fantasy’s You’re Too Late, and three of his songs made the cut on Johnny Guitar Watson’s That’s What Time it Is: He and Zager wrote “Go For It” and “Planet Funk” and the two of them collaborated with Watson on the title track. He played bass on Elusion’s Show and Tell, arranged, played synthesizer and sang vocals on Fantasy’s Sex and Material Possessions, and dueted with Dave Valentin on “I Don’t Wanna Fall in Love (I Just Wanna Dance)”, in 1982. In 1982, he co-produced Anthony Franklin’s “Hot Number” with Keith Diamond. He reunited with Fantasy on He’s Number One in 1985, playing bass and arranging for and playing the synthesizer.

In 1987, Billy Ocean covered a half-dozen songs which Jolyon co-wrote, including “The Colour of Love”, on Tear Down These Walls. Jolyon hit the trifecta with Jonathan Butler with the hit song “Lies”: It reached #5 on the R&B chart, #16 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #27 on the Billboard Hot 100. The two also made in-roads on the Dutch charts: “Lies” went to #53 there and “Holding On” peaked at #81. They teamed up again in 1988 on Butler’s More Than Friends, co-penning eight songs together, including the title track.

On 13^th August 1988, Freddie Jackson took the Barry Eastmond/Jolyon Skinner song “Nice ‘n’ Slow” to #95 in Holland. Stateside, Jolyon navigated toward production: He played keyboards for and produced Millie Jackson’s Tide is Turning, produced tracks 2 and 3 on Sarah Jane Morris’s self-titled album, and produced “Soulmate” on Wee Papa Girl Rappers’ The Beat The Rhyme The Noise. In 1989, Ruby Turner recorded a pair of Loris Holland/Jolyon Skinner songs, “It’s Gonna Be Alright” and “Paradise”: “It’s Gonna Be Alright” went to #1 on the R&B chart; “Paradise” was the title track of Ruby’s album (which Jolyon produced) and was included on the soundtrack of the 1990 film, Dancing Through the Dark.

In 1991, Jolyon sang backing vocals on Millie Jackson’s Young Man, Older Woman. Then he and songwriting partner Barry Eastmond teamed up with Freddie Jackson again on 1992’s “Come with Me Tonight”, “Time for Love Tonight”, and “Will You Be There”. In 1995, the three joined forces again, this time for Freddie’s Private Party, which included backing vocals by Jolyon as well as another Eastmond/Skinner creation, “Lay Your Love on Me”. They tried again on Freddie’s 1996 release, “Can We Try”.

In the meantime, Jolyon was busy trying to put the Backstreet Boys on the map, doing the vocal arrangements for their eponymous debut. One of the songs he co-wrote for them, “Boys Will Be Boys”, was used on the soundtrack of the Eddie Murphy comedy, The Nutty Professor. Then Jolyon began a long-time collaboration with Joe Thomas, who just bills himself as Joe, providing lyrics and background vocals for his 1997 offering, All That I Am. Jolyon co-wrote seven tracks on the album.

He and Veit Renn also contributed “Forever I Do” to Solid Harmonie’s self-titled effort. In 1998, Jolyon, Joe, and Michele Williams had one of their songs, “You Should Know Me”, hit the big screen as part of the soundtrack of Caught Up. About two-and-a-half months later, ‘N Sync took another Renn/Skinner song, “For the Girl Who Has Everything” to #22 on the Swiss charts. Jolyon produced Marc Dorsey’s Crave, co-writing the title track with Dorsey, Timothy Monroe Allen, and Larry Campbell. It was subsequently used in the 1999 film, The Wood.

In 2000, Bryan B included “Take Good Care of Her”, a Butler/Skinner collaboration, on his album, This Time. Jolyon produced Marc Dorsey’s 2000 CD, If You Really Want to Know. “I Wanna Know”, a Joe/Jolyon/Michele Williams special, shot to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. On 21^st March 2000, ‘N Sync released , No Strings Attached, including extras by Renn and Skinner, “Could it Be You” and “This is Where the Party’s At”. The latter also made the cut on an ‘N Sync maxi-single, released on 12^th June 2000. In 2001, Joe released a pair of duets co-written by Jolyon: “Still Not a Player” with Big Punisher and “I Believe in You” with ‘N Sync. “I Believe in You” went to #72 in Holland.

In 2002, ‘N Sync released Celebrity, and it included the J.C. Chasez/Veit Renn/Jolyon Skinner composition, “Selfish”, and Jolyon sang background vocals on Joe’s Better Days. Joe and Jadakiss recorded “I Want a Girl Like You”, written by a committee including Jolyon, for the 2002 film, Drumline. He and Joe wrote “Home Tonight” and he and Delroy Andrews and Darcy Kahn wrote “It’s Beginning to Feel Like Love”, recorded by Mis-Teeq on their 2003 album, Eye Candy, which Jolyon produced.

In 2004, he produced Hed Kandi’s Back to Love and “I Wanna Know” was included on the soundtrack of White Chicks. Vanessa Bell sang his and Jonathan Butler’s “Pressing On” on her 2005 album, Sing to Glory. In 2007, Peabo Bryson returned to the scene with Missing You, and its first track was “Heavenly”, co-penned by Butler, Eastmond, and Skinner. Joe and Jolyon continued to collaborate in 2007 and 2009 on Joe’s albums, Ain’t Nothin’ Like Me and Signature.

The Spinners recordings
Disco Ride (Jolyon Skinner/ Eltesa Weathersby/Michael Zager)

Sources:

Skinner, Jolyon

Navigation