Marcel King

Marcel King ( 1958 - 1995) is best known as the lead singer of Sweet Sensation : an eight piece British soul group who had some success between 1974 and 1977. Cast very much in the then-popular mould of the Philly sound, they broke through in 1974 following an appearance on the UK television talent show New Faces .They are best known for their 1974 #1 UK hit, "Sad Sweet Dreamer". Under the guidance of panellist Tony Hatch the band signed to Pye Records. The debut single "Snow Train" failed to reach the charts, but the follow up "Sad Sweet Dreamer" was a UK number one single in September 1974, also reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following spring. The follow up "Purely by Coincidence" reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1975. Both songs were written by David Parton. Follow-up singles "Hide Away from The Sun", "Mr Cool", "Sweet Regrets" and "Mail Train" all failed to make the charts over the next couple of years. In 1977 the band participated in A Song For Europe in an attempt to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song "You're My Sweet Sensation" ended in eighth place. Subsequently, they were then dropped by Pye and disbanded shortly after. Marcel King, tried to resurrect a solo career in 1985 and with Donald Johnson from A Certain Ratio and Bernard Sumner of New Order, he recorded "Reach For Love" in 1991 on Factory Records without commercial success, despite a pin-sharp Mark Kamins remix of the lead track. The song was later hailed by the Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder as the best Factory release he had heard. He died of a brain haemorrhage on 5 October 1995 at the age of 38. The tragedy deepened two years later when his son Zeus, 19, was shot dead in an outbreak of gang warfare in South Manchester.[ Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.