We've had a lot of threads about Cameo here on the org but I wanted to single out Wayne Cooper and give him a thread of his own. This man had one of the baddest falsettos I have ever heard in my life.

Does anyone know what year Wayne Cooper died? Did he leave the group or was he thrown out? I know Cameo made some great albums after Wayne Cooper was gone from the group but just imagine what some of their albums would have been like if he had still been in the group. Damn, I just can't even imagine what great music they would have made.

Anyway, give it up for the late great Mr. Wayne Cooper!

"Why Have I Lost You"

That's one slowjam that you'd better like!!

When he sings "what you want me to be" on I Just Want To Be, it still sends chills down my back.

His voice was perfect and I miss him.

vainandy said:

YES SIR!!!!! ONE OF THE BEST FALSETTOS EVER!!!!! DON'T QUOTE ME, BUT I HEARD THAT HE & MR. BLACKMON HAD A FALLING OUT & U KNOW THE REST!!!!! I ALSO HEARD THAT AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH (I'M GUESSING 83 OR 84), HE WAS WORKING ON A SOLO LP. MY FAVE WAYNE COOPER CAMEO MOMENTS ARE:

-WHY HAVE I LOST YOU #1 (from WE ALL KNOW WHO WE ARE)
-WHY HAVE I LOST YOU #2 (from CAMEOSIS)
-SPARKLE (from SECRET OMEN- his backing vocals are amazing!!!!)
-TWO OF US (from UGLY EGO)
-I WANT YOU (from UGLY EGO)
-WE'RE GOIN' OUT TONIGHT (from CAMEOSIS)
-I JUST WANT TO BE (from SECRET OMEN)
-WE ALL KNOW WHO WE ARE (from WE ALL KNOW WHO WE ARE)

Oh hell yeah, I love it. Don't get me wrong, I love slow jams....just not the ones after 1985 after everyone had become all adult contemporary and Shitney Houston influenced.

Wayne Cooper made the type of slow jams like the other slow jams that are my favorite such as The Stylistics, Blue Magic, Switch, Heatwave, Special Delivery, Philip Bailey from EWF, Otis Stokes from Lakeside, Prince, of course, Average White Band (A Love Of My Own), Norman Conners, etc. My favorites have always been male falsettos but they have to have great music behind them. Don't go throwing any of this late 80s to present falsettos my way because the music behind them sucks diseased dicks.

The good thing about Wayne Cooper, was that he not only was great on slow jams, but he could kick ass on some hard funk such as "I Just Want To Be" and "Shake Your Pants". Great artists should be required to make uptempo jams. It should be written in their recording contract.
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[Edited 10/5/07 6:42am]

When did he die? Did he leave the group because he was sick? Did he get tired of the group? Did the group get tired of him? I guess my question is, why wasn't he on some of the other great Cameo albums of the early 80s. They were great albums but he would have made them absolutely fierce.

I was thinking wayne cooper died in 1985 or 1986. I remember i used to listen
to a radio show on westwood called radioscope that would give you a five minute update on black music artists and entertainers. At that time they stated on the radio he died of cancer. I guess at that time people were still trying to understand aids. Nevertheless,wayne cooper was an excellent vocalist with cameo and is and will always be missed.

I used to listen to "Radioscope" every night. It was kind of like the "Right On" magazine of radio.

Back in those early years, people that had AIDS told the everyone they had cancer because a lot of people wanted to refuse to accept the fact that you can't catch it from casual contact. I never dreamed he died as late as 1985 or 1986 though.

Cameo -- We're Going Out Tonight (1980)
http://www.youtube.com/wa...F7uEXqdlM4

Basically, it's a duet with Larry Blackmon & Wayne Cooper.

vainandy said:

If I'm not mistaken, Wayne Cooper left Cameo sometime after the "Cameosis" album and essentially was replaced by Charlie Singleton (who came on board during the "Knights of the Sound Table" album). Cooper was openly gay, which is how he reportedly contracted AIDS. I was under the impression that Cooper died sometime earlier than 1985, like 1982.
[Edited 10/5/07 18:24pm]

Cooper was awesome on "Find My Way". That's one of my favorite Cameo songs.

1982 sounds more like it considering when he left the group. I knew he was gay but I didn't know he was openly gay. That just makes me admire him even more because it would take some real guts to be in the open in those days.

I love that a gay man would be in a group full of men that made such hard funk. And apparently, he had the respect of his bandmates because they didn't hide him in the back either. They put him right up front and didn't give a damn if people didn't like it.

Ah yes, the late great Wayne Cooper. Such a beautiful, amazing, and angelic voice.

Cameo added a new dimension to their sound when he came aboard. I'll even go so far as saying that Cooper had a falsetto way better than Prince and Phillip Bailey.

I will definitely say that the last track on "Cameosis" would be Wayne's finest moment.

Sparkle///now I gotta go and dig that out. Yeah- he killed those high notes.

Love Wayne.....

Wayne Cooper had the best falsetto I've ever heard. Yes, better than Prince or Philip Bailey.

Cameo had a huge stage act back in the day with truckloads of all kinds of props and a whole lot of musicians. Larry realized that they weren't gonna make a lot of money cause they had to pay for all that shit and then pay all the musicians too. That's why he started cutting people.

Wayne is one the key reasons I love the seventies Cameo better than the eighties Cameo.

BOTH WAYNE COOPER AND BOBBY DEBARGE!!!!!

"I NEVER THOUUUUUGHT YOU'D DO ME THIS WAAAAAYYYYY"
-WHY HAVE I LOST YOU-

WAYNE COOPER R.I.P.!!!!!

I read back in 1983-84 in Right On magazine that he had died of leukemia.
in another magazine prior to his death it was stated that Wayne had left for a solo album that was going to be produced by Larry Blackmon.

He did have a mean falsetto.maybe better than Prince's (which can be quite sassy at times)

Wayne was always to me the male of Strapoints Renee Diggs(or was the the other way around, she's the female version of Wayne Cooper?)

I WOULD PAY TOP DOLLAR TO GET MY HANDS ON SOME OF HIS UNREALEASED MATERIAL

vainandy said:

I WAS ANGRY WHEN I WATCHED THEM ON SOUL TRAIN AND THEY HAD SOMEONE LIP SYNCING HIS PART. I COULD HAVE SHOT THAT DUDE

Wayne Cooper set Cameo's music on fire. I had the chance 2 see Wayne on their Cameosis tour & he was sounding just like the record. Why Have I Lost U & We're Going Out Tonight are some of my Cameo fave's with him!