Robin Thicke

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• Genre: Contemporary R&B
• Hometown: Los Angeles
• Robin Thicke Website

About

Robin Thicke -- or just "Thicke" as he was known until 2005 -- is the product of a strong, if slightly sappy, musical lineage: his mother is adult contemporary singer and soap star Gloria Loring and his father is Alan Thicke, who played Jason Seaver on Growing Pains and penned family-friendly theme songs for game shows like Wheel of Fortune and (with Loring) sitcoms like Diff'rent Strokes. After dabbling in acting as a kid, he set his sights on a career in music, and was fortunate enough to befriend Andre Herrell, the president of Uptown Records. He began writing pop hits for artists like Mya, Christina Aguilera and Marc Anthony, while focusing his own oeuvre more on the funkiest blue-eyed soul this side of Jamiroquai. Songs like "When I Get You Alone," which sampled Walter Murphy's disco hit "A Fifth of Beethoven," made fans out of the likes of Usher and Pharrell, who signed him to the Neptunes' Star Trak label.

- Rachel Devitt