Paul Jabara

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Paul Jabara in 1979.
Paul Jabara in 1979.

Paul Jabara (January 31, 1948 – September 29, 1992) was an American actor,singer and songwriter.

Jabara was in the original cast of the stage musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar As well as taking over the role of Frank-N-Furter in the Los Angeles Production of The Rocky Horror Show when Tim Curry left the production to film the movie version in England.

He released his first album Shut Out in 1977. He is best known, however, for writing Donna Summer's Oscar and Grammy Award-winning hit "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday (1978) and Barbra Streisand's Golden Globe-nominated song "The Main Event/Fight" from The Main Event (1979). Jabara also played the role of Carl, the unlucky-in-love and short-sighted disco goer in Thank God It's Friday and he also contributed as a singer on two tracks on the original soundtrack album.

Jabara won the 1979 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Last Dance" and the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Jabara's solo albums on the legendary disco label Casablanca Records include three duets with Donna Summer; "Shut Out" (1977), "Something's Missing" (1978) and "Never Lose Your Sense Of Humor" (1979).

He later penned Streisand & Summer's duet "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", which was a Billboard number-one hit. His credits also include the Weather Girls hit "It's Raining Men", co-written with Paul Shaffer. Also written for Bette Midler but never commercially released was "Jinxed!", the closing credits theme from the movie and box-office bomb of the same name in 1981. It is more of a New Wave sounding recording typical of the era. Jabara also wrote Diana Ross' 1982 hit single "Work That Body", included on her album Why Do Fools Fall in Love, as well as "Two Lovers" for Julio Iglesias (1984).

He wrote the book, music, lyrics and starred in the Broadway musical Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It) which played the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City in 1973. It closed in previews prior to its official opening and was never reviewed by the press. No recording was made of the score, which featured both Jabara's trademark disco music as well as more traditional Broadway-style numbers. In 2005, a workshop of a musical entitled Last Dance played New York City. It was a musical assembled from Jabara's well-known disco songs and told the story of a modern-day teenager who goes back in time to spend one night at Studio 54.

Jabara's 1983 album Paul Jabara & Friends which includes The Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men" also features guest vocals by the at the time 20 year old and still relatively unknown R & B singer Whitney Houston.

"It's Raining Men" later appeared on the soundtrack of several movies, including Bridget Jones's Diary and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Contents

[edit] Red Ribbon Project

Jabara was co-founder of the Red Ribbon Project, an artists' collective, and is believed by some to have conceived and distributed the first red AIDS ribbons, although the Red Ribbon Project specifically renounced the notion of any individual authorship.[1] Jabara died from lymphoma related to AIDS at the age of 44. He is interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Soundtracks and compilations

[edit] External links