By Chaos, Freelance WriterNOEL PAGAN is better known by simply his first name. The singer is something of an anomaly in the music industry, being a male dance artiste in a genre dominated by females, and he also was one of the first. To put things in context, Rod Stewart (Do You Think I'm Sexy?) started out as one but did not remain that way for long and trying to come up with other examples could result in quite some time spent thinking.
Here dance does not refer to the art form, to ballet or 'Pon Di River, Pon Di Bank', but to that peculiar pocket of music typified by frenetic beats, rollicking percussion, lots of slick production and quite often, frenzied vocals. Think Ce Ce Peniston's Finally, Robin S' Show Me Love or Sonique's It Feels So Good. That's dance.
Noel, the son of a Spanish father and a Puerto Rican mother, is one of the featured acts scheduled for this Saturday's Megajamz98 'Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet', which is to be held at Liguanea Club, St. Andrew, with Inner Circle, Tina Charles and Lisa Lisa. When speaking with The Gleaner from his home in the United States he said, "I had no idea that my music is known in Jamaica. I got a call from my booking agent about a show in Jamaica, so I said 'Sure, why not?'. I'm excited, I can't wait to go."
His surprise is somewhat justified, since most Jamaicans know at least one of his songs, yet have no idea of who the singer is. Noel is an anomaly in yet another way. He is one of that select group of artistes to see their very first single hit astronomical heights, becoming an international hit on a scale very few songs have hopes of attaining. His turn came in 1987 with the smash Silent Morning - Silent morning/I wake up and you're not by my side/Silent morning/You know how hard I try/Silent morning/They say a man's not supposed to cry/Silent morning/Why did your love have to be a lie? a hit which packed dance floors everywhere on the strength of ridiculously catchy music that insisted on worming its way into one's soul, combined with Noel's searingly plaintive vocals.
In fact, many people thought the song was about the AIDS epidemic, which was then just beginning to come to public attention, but Noel says the songs was about "...a relationship with a girl I had in high school." Many artistes end up resenting a song that could end up having them labelled a 'one-hit wonder' (for example, Andru Donalds displays a marked reluctance to sing Mi'shale whenever he performs), but Noel says "I like it, it meant a lot to me and obviously it still does. It touched a lot of people, who could obviously relate to what I wrote."
Silent Morning was followed by Like A Child, which is a very nice song, The Question and a few years later, in 1993, an attempt at a pop/rock fusion on an album called Hearts Of Fire, none of which even remotely approached the success of his first single, as he suffered the curse of trying to duplicating the emotional response to his first single.
In the time since he went into semi-retirement for a few years, working in the studio writing and producing for other people. He also assembled a band in 1988/1989, toured the United States and Brazil and even went to acting school (he has a small part in a movie which he says is set to commence shooting in July) until the reemergence of dance as a popular genre and the advice of others convinced him to make a comeback. Noel has recorded a single called Take All Of Me which he describes as "...'Tribal House'. It's one of the most popular forms of club music we played it at a club in New York and the response was amazing."
As to what Jamaicans can expect of him this coming Saturday he says "I've been practising martial arts for over 14 years and I incorporate a lot of that into my stage shows. You can expect a show I'll be doing some of my older stuff and maybe introducing the new song - I'm excited man."
