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Call him, call him by his name or call him by number, he is the one and only. You can't take that away from him.
September 22nd 1971 was a wonderful day, for it was then that, in Windsor, Berkshire, England, Chesney Hawkes was born to Carol and Len "Chip" Hawkes (the singer of The Tremeloes). A mere nineteen years later, in early 1991, Chesney released 'The one and only' and the world was changed forever.
'The one and only' (his debut) went straight in at number one and stayed there for five weeks (following Bart Simpson: 'The Bartman' and replaced by a re-release of Cher: 'The shoop shoop song' if I remember correctly). It decimated the top ten charts internationally, and became one of the undisputed global teen anthems of 1991 when it was featured over the titles of the Michael J. Fox movie 'Doc Hollywood'.
Chesney concluded 1991 with a sell-out European tour, playing his own club shows and supporting Huey Lewis and The News in arenas. This finished at London's Hammersmith Odeon, and signified the end of this particular stage of his career: having achieved teen idol status, Chesney was ready to establish himself as a song writer in his own right, a point he laboured by releasing the single 'I'm a man not a boy'.
After releasing his second album, 'Get the picture', Chesney was sadly dropped by the record label Chrysalis. The time honoured route would have been for him to turn to pantomime, store openings and West End roles, but, with music still clearly at Chesney's heart, he instead capitalised on the success of his 1990 performance as Buddy in the film 'Buddy's song'. As he sung in 'The one and only', he was once again "a flicker on the blue screen," this time starring as a stable boy in the 1997 film 'Prince Valiant' (or 'Prinz Eisenherz' to Germans).
Around the same time, Chesney's musical career was again taking off, this time by way of his songs being covered by girlband Hepburn (who covered 'Next life') and North2South (who laughably covered 'I'm a man not a boy'). In March 2001, Caprice charted with the Chesney-written 'Once around the sun', though I am unsure exactly how much of this particular success should be attributed to the song and now much to her previous career modelling Wonderbras on advertising hoardings everywhere.
More prestigiously, Chesney also collaborated with Tricky on 'Mission Accomplished EP', and 'Almost you' was featured in the 1999 film 'Jawbreaker', starring Marilyn Manson and Rose McGowen. Both these potential bringers of real street cred somehow passed without notice, but far be it from anyone to suggest that his involvement was hushed up.
During the latter half of 2000 and the beginning of 2001, Chesney recorded new songs in London and in Los Angeles, producing the single 'Stay away baby Jane', released in summer 2001. Since then, following in the footsteps of such 80s media giants as Timmy Mallet and Funhouse's Pat Sharpe, Chesney has of late been performing at student unions and cheesy bars throughout the UK. I for one am thrilled to see Chesney back and performing at the height of his ability.
At present, Chesney is again working on a new album. His resurgance in popularity confirmed by the filming of a forthcoming TV documentary with Martin Bashir.
It can clearly be seen that all this time, he tried to walk with dignity and pride, and truly was the one and only.
