WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Eugene Wilde

American singer Eugene Wilde briefly enjoyed his ‘personality’ in the mid-80’s before slipping away. To where though…?

Ronald Eugene Broomfield was born in Florida in 1961 and was part of the group La Voyage in the 1970’s. They changed their name twice to Tight Connection and finally Simplicious in the 1980’s, but by then ‘Ronald’, now calling himself Eugene Wilde, was no frontman and would soon just use his own name for the songs. Having played the clubs in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Eugene was signed to Philly World Records in 1984 and released his first single, “Let Her Feel It”, soon after. The track did nothing at home but did register low on the UK singles chart. The follow up, “Gotta Get You Home Tonight”, fared much better and went to No.18 in the UK. It went on to top the US R&B chart.

Eugene’s self-titled debut album saw only moderate interest at home. It produced another R&B Chart hit with “Rainbow” and in early 1985 a UK top 40 hit with “Personality”, which would his last there. 1985 saw Eugene release the new track “Don’t Say No Tonight”, which gave him a second R&B Chart number one and his highest charting single on the US singles chart (No.76). His follow up album “Serenade” performed abysmally and featured just one more R&B top ten hit in America, “Diana”. Eugene continued to pump out the songs and albums for the rest of the decade and even recorded with Sheena Easton in 1987 on the song “What If We Fall In Love?” for her album “No Sound But A Heart”, which featured songs by Prince and also “The Last To Know”, later recorded by Celine Dion.

Eugene got a mid-sized R&B chart hit in 1992 with “How About Tonight” (No.17), before calling it a day as a perfomer. He spent the rest of the 1990’s building his portfolio as a songwriter, eventually penning hits for the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and even ‘Posh Spice’ herself, Victoria Beckham! After nineteen years, Eugene released his own album “Get Comfortable” in 2011 and in 2018, founded his own record label, 50ish Music Group. Now that’s having a personality!