Hazell Dean ( Poole; born 27 October 1952) is an English dance-pop singer, who achieved her biggest success in the 1980s as a leading hi-NRG artist. She is best known for the top-ten hits in the United Kingdom "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)", "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)" and "Who's Leaving Who". She has also worked as a songwriter and producer.
Career
Dean was born in Great Baddow, Essex. She started her career in the mid-1970s and came to prominence in the following decade after many years as a club performer and working on the gay scene with her brand of hi-NRG. She was elected three times as the "Best Live Performer" by the "Federation of American Dance Clubs" (US), and twice as a "Best British Performer" by "Club Mirror Awards" (UK)..
Dean started her career signed to Decca Records releasing a few pop/soul singles from the mid to late '70s written and produced by Paul Curtis. Dean participated in the A Song for Europe contest in 1976, and took eighth place (out of twelve) with the ballad, "I Couldn't Live Without You for a Day", written by contest veteran Curtis.
Dean's first album was first released in 1981. The Sound of Bacharach and David was a collection of covers written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and was only released promotionally to radio stations for them to use the songs to pad out their programming with songs they didn't have to pay so much for in royalties. A very rare album, it was re-released commercially for the first time in 2014. Dean also released a promotional double A-side single for the area of Medway ("Medway You're the One / Medway That's Where I Wanna Be") in 1982. This was re-discovered and put onto YouTube in 2017.
Mainstream success
Dean decided to put behind her pop/soul sound she had been recording, and issued her first dance record, "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)" in the summer of 1983. While it was a big hit in gay clubs, it only peaked at #76.
In February 1984 she entered the UK Singles Chart with the double A-sided single, "Evergreen" / "Jealous Love" which peaked at #63. In April 1984 Dean participated in "A Song For Europe" again, finish in seventh place out of eight, with another dramatic ballad, "Stay In My Life", which she wrote herself.
In June 1984, the re-release of "Searchin' (I Gotta Find A Man)" became her first single to reach the UK top 10, peaking at #6. Despite the success of the single, Dean says there was no follow-up in place even as it rose high in the charts, and when she accidentally ran into producer Pete Waterman at Proto Records, she agreed to consider working with his then little known team, Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW).
Producer Mike Stock recalled the pressure on Dean to produce a follow-up when she came to SAW in the hope of a second hit. "She was upset at time," Stock remembered. "I remember her saying at times this was so important to her. [It was] that dreadful follow-up situation – how do you follow up a hit?'"
Dean then released the follow-up, "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)" (produced by SAW), in July which peaked at #4. "Whatever I Do" was originally named "Dance Your Love Away", and had been recorded by singer Michael Prince, but the song was re-written by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken because Dean disliked the chorus.
Prince says he was not informed that Dean had recorded a version of the song he'd recorded months earlier and was waiting to release. He claimed he first found out when her version came on while he was dancing in a nightclub. A new version of "Dance Your Love Away" was released as a single in 1985, but did not chart.
In contrast, Dean's placing with the song gave Stock/Aitken/Waterman their first top 10 hit. Further singles, "Back In My Arms (Once Again)" and "No Fool (For Love)" both peaked at #41. These singles were included on her debut mainstream pop album, Heart First, which did not sell well and failed to chart.
In 1985 the single Harmony (written by Bill Clift and Peter Marsh) was released in Germany on the Bellaphon label. In 1985 Dean signed with label EMI Records, releasing the Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced single "They Say It's Gonna Rain", which included lyrics in Zulu and reached #58 on the UK Singles Chart, and became a #1 single in South Africa. Subsequent singles fared worse with "ESP", "Stand Up" and "Always (Doesn't Mean Forever)" failing to reach the UK top 75. In early 1988 however, she achieved her biggest hit in four years with "Who's Leaving Who", which reached #4. The track, a cover of an Anne Murray song, restored her commercial fortunes and led to a new album.