Would I Lie To You 90s singers Charles & Eddie now – mental health battle to tragedy

It was number one on the UK charts for just two weeks, but Charles & Eddie's hit Would I Lie To You? has become iconic in the 31 since its release in August 1992.

The song seemed to come from nowhere before reached the coveted top spot in November of the same year, also achieving the same chart success in countries including New Zealand, Germany, Austria and Zimbabwe, and becoming a hit the world over.

At the time, the duo's debut single was highly praised, with one critic saying they "show their appreciation of classic soul in a very pop-friendly way."

And the accompanying video, which saw Charles & Eddie performing in various locations around New York City, has generated more than 65 million views on YouTube.

But who were the enigmatic duo, Charles & Eddie?

Charles was Charles Pettigrew, born on 12 May, 1963 in Philadelphia. He studied jazz singing at college before becoming lead singer for a band.

Meanwhile, Eddie was Eddie Chacon, born on 22 August, 1963 and raised in California.

He started a group when he was just 12 with neighourhood friends, who later went on to be in the bands Metallica and Faith No More.

Eddie himself became a songwriter for a music label.

But Charles & Eddie apparently came about when the duo met by chance on the New York Subway in 1990, with the pair co-incidentally sharing the same A&R man at Capitol Records.

They began recording together and released their debut album, Duophonic, in 1992.

"We started writing songs at lightning speed — in the back of taxi cabs, laying on the floor in apartments, in bars on napkins," Eddie later revealed to the New York Times.

Although many think of Charles & Eddie as one-hit wonders, but they had several more UK singles, including NYC (Can You Believe This City?) and House Is Not a Home.

But when their follow-up album flopped, they sadly split in 1987.

So what happened next for Charles and Eddie?

Charles went on to join a band called Tom Tom Club, but was diagnosed with cancer and became too ill to perform. He tragically died from the disease on 6 April, 2001, aged just 37 years old.

Eddie made a couple of albums, but struggled professionally. "It sounds like something from a bad movie," he told The Guardian in 2020.

He recalls how he would write music every day, until a particular moment around 2005.

“That morning, my wife walked into my studio and I was just sitting there," he said.

"She asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ I just said, ‘Nobody’s listening.’ I turned everything off, walked out, and I never went back for 10 years.”

He also remembered battling an inferiority complex, saying: "I’d just felt this great inferiority complex that I’d mask with ego. I wanted to let go of all that.24-hour news, social media was starting to have a massive impact on my mental health."

It wasn't until May 2020 that Eddie announced his return to music after 20 years of silence as a singer and now he feels in a much happier place.

Releasing his cathartic new album, Pleasure, Joy and Happiness, he told The Guardian he'd been listening back to it and was moved to tears: “Up until that point, I didn’t feel I’d ever done anything real or great in my life. I finally felt like I’d done something good.”

Meanwhile, another Nineties popstar is unrecognisable 24 years after relocating to Italy.

Ann Lee became a voice of Eurodance with her hits 2 Times and Voices in the 90s and continues to tour the world from her European base.

The singer, now 55, released her most famous tracks in 1999 and is also credited with contributing to the composition of the dance banger The Rhythm Of The Night

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