Clivillés & Cole

by Steve Kurutz
Like the allied powers of dance music, Robert Clivillés and David Cole separately enjoyed moderate success producing and remixing tracks for various artists, but together they were a dynamic force that deeply affected the sound of late 80s and early 90s dance music. After meeting on the Manhattan club scene in the late 70s, the young pair (Clivillés a DJ, Cole a keyboard player) began collaborating on tracks and testing them out on unsuspecting clubgoers. One such clubgoer was A&M big wig Larry Yasgar who, at the time, was scouting talent for his new subsidiary Vendetta. After hearing their improvised tracks, the two were promptly signed and released A Cuban, a Black Man & a Drum Machine, which was a smash in clubland circa 1981. Although the remainder of the 80s was a successful time for the duo (they produced albums by Chaka Khan and Grace Jones, among others), it wasnt until the early 90s that the pair became household names. Realizing that they wanted to perform as well as produce, Clivillés & Cole, along with rapper Freedom Williams and singer Zelma Davis, created C&C Music Factory in 1990. Their debut album, fueled by the hit singles Gonna Make You Sweat and Here We Go, became a smash hit and for the next few years the group ruled the dance-pop airwaves and MTV. Their sound, a hybrid of slickly produced pop coupled with hard beats, was widely imitated at the time by groups such as Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch. With the success of C&C, the pair were also a hot commodity in the studio and subsequently produced hits for Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Sadly, their partnership ended in 1994 when David Cole died of complications from spinal meningitis.