Errol Brown, who has died aged 71, became one of the most successful artists in British pop. With his band Hot Chocolate, and with production assistance from pop wizard Mickie Most, he had a huge run of hit singles throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
You Sexy Thing, originally released in 1975, became an international good-time party anthem, reaching the British top 10 in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It was an odd quirk of Hot Chocolate's career that they only had one No 1 hit in Britain, with So You Win Again in 1977, but they achieved at least one hit every year from 1970 to 1984.
Though he owned a sumptuous mansion and a beach house in the Bahamas, and had racehorses, Brown insisted that “I wasn’t desperate to be a pop star” and refused to get carried away by his own success.
He was born in Kingston, Jamaica. His parents, Ivan and Edna, split up while he was a young child, and he was mostly cared for by an aunt. His mother had emigrated to England and brought Errol to join her when he was 11.
“I was ridiculed for both my colour and my Jamaican accent and there were times when I had to use my fists to defend myself,” Brown remembered.
He formed Hot Chocolate with the Trinidadian musician Tony Wilson. You Sexy Thing was a hit around the world. Brown's radiant self-confidence, shaven head and fondness for bling turned him into both pop idol and sex symbol.
Hot Chocolate had become such a part of Britain’s social fabric that they performed at a pre-wedding party for Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
‘Rockbroker’ belt
Brown settled in the Surrey “rockbroker” belt, and was in demand to perform at Conservative Party conferences.
He enjoyed a top 20 solo hit with a re-release of It Started With a Kiss in 1998, and toured Germany and the UK in 1998 and 1999. He was appointed MBE in 2003, and the following year received an Ivor Novello award.
In 2009 he embarked on a farewell tour, and declared: “When you’ve had your greatest creative years and then to be going out and trying to come back with something – at my age it’s a bit silly. I’ve done what I was very happy with, and that’s it.”
He is survived by his wife, Ginette, and their two daughters, Colette and Leonie.