Eagle-Eye Cherry came on the scene in 1998. I was working at a Top 40 station at the time and pretty much the only thing I knew about him was:
- His dad was famous jazz trumpeter, Don Cherry (who also co-wrote and performed on Lou Reed’s “All Through the Night”)
- His half-sister was Neneh Cherry, who had a huge hit in 1989 with the song “Buffalo Stance”
Still, his debut album, Desireless, went platinum and the first single, “Save Tonight”, went to #5 on the U.S. charts. Not a bad way to start to a career. Unfortunately, that was pretty much as far as it went for Eagle-Eye. He has since released three more albums, but he is what we in radio call a “One Hit Wonder”.
Since then, “Save Tonight” has been covered a few times by such bands as The Blackout and E.M.D. (Not to mention the many versions found on YouTube.) Recently, New York duo Louis Rivet – consisting of Nicholas II and Aria S – teamed up with Gavrielle and Nick Goldston to cover the song. “We thought it was something that fans would connect with,” the band explained. “A lot of the stuff coming out these days doesn’t have that emotional component that really resonates with fans. We wanted to create a song that seems happy but underneath, there’s an underlying sadness…we enjoy creating art that carries with two different meanings.”
This happy/sad combo comes as no surprise considering that Louis Vivet took their name from a 19th century French man who was one of the first people diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, or “split personality”. (It is said that Vivet was the inspiration behind Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.)
It also explains why they chose the name for their group. “As we conceptualized our act, it became increasingly apparent that we would never allow one state of mind and one singular direction to constrain our creativity.”
You can check out more of Louis Vivet on Facebook. Gavrielle has a website and Facebook. Nick Goldston is on Facebook.