Down The Dumper – The 80s Part 17.

This is an American singer who only had two hit singles in the UK in the 80s, one made the Top Ten, but the other missed the Top 40, meaning that her popularity in this country turned out to be more short-lived than was expected. Pebbles (whose real first name is Perri) got her nickname from her resemblance as a child to the cartoon character Pebbles Flintstone.

And it was clear that the musical talent ran in the family. Her cousin is Cherrelle, whose biggest hit in this country was “Saturday Love”, her 1985 debut with Alexander O’Neal. Although I discovered recently that she did the original version of “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On”, which went on to be covered by Robert Palmer and was a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

In March 1988, “Girlfriend” was released, which reached no. 8, to become her first and only Top Ten hit single in the UK, although this was the first of three Top Ten hits in America (this was also covered by The Beautiful South on their 1989 debut album). Pebbles performed this in the studio on the short-lived American version of Top Of The Pops, and she also performed this in the studio on the British version, and she must be among a rather small group of people who have achieved this.

But then, just two months later in May 1988, the follow-up “Mercedes Boy” was released, and this reached only no. 42. Also in this month, the debut album “Pebbles” reached only no. 56, and her other two albums didn’t chart all in the UK. Her fame was over rather quickly, and apart from one more minor hit single in 1990, Pebbles wasn’t heard of much again in the UK.

But it turns out that what she has done after this has been rather eventful. Pebbles remained in the music business, and went on to work behind the scenes, including being the manager of girl group TLC, who have had lots of chart success, and she has also been married five times, although I don’t know if every time she got divorced she said “you’ve lied your last lie, I’m out the door!“.