Song:No One Is To Blame
Album:Best Of
The synthesizer driven music of Howard Jones typified the pop music of the mid-80s. And Jones had a couple of top five hits including No One Is To Blame in 1985. He was born Feb. 23, 1955 in Southampton, England. He took piano lessons as a child. And when his family moved to Canada, he joined the group Warrior as a teen. Jones moved back to England and played in various bands while attending the Royal Northern College Of Music in Manchester. He started performing with mime Jed Hoile. Hoile did improvised dance while covered with white paint and Jones would play keyboards behind him. Jones did a showcase at the Marquee Club in London to get record labels to sign him. He got the attention of legendary BBC DJ John Peel and he signed with WEA in England and Elektra in the US in 1983. His debut single New Song was a top five hit in England and a top 30 hit in the US. His debut album Human's Lib did very well in England but not as well in the US. So with his second album Dream Into Action, Elektra wanted Jones to break through in the US. Jones got rid of Hoile and hired the female backing singers Afrodiziak featuring Caron Wheeler who would later become famous with Soul II Soul. He brought in his brother Martin to play bass. Jones got the results Elektra was looking for as Things Can Only Get Better reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. They decided to have Jones re-record No One Is To Blame and brought in Phil Collins to produce and play drums. It paid off as No One Is To Blame reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. His subsequent albums did not perform as well and he left Elektra in 1992. This 1993 comp has all his hits. Since then Howard Jones has written songs for others and recorded on his own label. He seems to have abandoned electronic keyboards and mostly plays acoustic piano these days. He last recorded in 2009. Here's the video for No One Is To Blame by Howard Jones.
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