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| Rashon Fegan as Bobby DeBarge in “The Bobby DeBarge Story”
Photo: TV One |
On June 29, TV One will air the original movie, “The Bobby DeBarge Story,” a personal look into the life of the eldest member of the DeBarge Musical Family who was part of the 70s R & B band, “Switch.” The movie stars Roshon Fegan as Bobby DeBarge.
Any story of the man behind such hits that are considered R & B classics today must include the music. The band, with members Bobby and Tommy DeBarge, Phillip Ingram, Greg Williams, Eddie Fluellen, and Jody Sims had a string of hits in the 70s – “I Call Your Name,” “Love Me Over and Over Again” and “There’ll Never Be.”
With “The Bobby DeBarge Story” premiering this weekend, TVMusic Network caught up with film producer James Sepplefrick to find out the songs used in the movie.
Check it out below:
Just how
much of the catalog will we actually see? There are so many songs. Did you have access to them? With that wealth of material, what did you get a chance to put into the script?
James Sepplefrick: So, so we
really tried to obviously, um, we have financial constraints in the budget that
we have. So yes, we had access to the music and the choice selections were, “I Call Your Name,” by Switch. And “I Like It” by DeBarge.
The song
that they sing to Barry Gordy to showcase their talents is an original song, that
we created because the songs that they did in that showcase aren’t songs weren’t
ever released. Those are the two main focal points of the songs. We
flirted with using “Dance The Night Away” and we’re still kind of figuring
that part out. Our
big performance pieces are, “I Call Your Name” and “I Like It.”
So a one Switch
song and one DeBarge Song, that were the two turning points of the film. One
kind of opens the film and gets us going. And then one is the upturn of
the DeBarge family versus the downturn of Bobby. Those
are the two elements that we used, but we had access to all the songs. Just can’t
say that we could have afforded a whole lot more than that. So it really came
down to economics as to what we had access to.
About the original
song, how was that song shaped to reflect the era of the time to sound like
DeBarge, Bobby did you work to make the song feel like a DeBarge song and have
it reflect the time period?
James Sepplefrick: Well, yeah,
and it’s very difficult. The person who plays El is a singer and his name is
Bruno Rose. When he got the part, he had a producer who worked with him named
Dante Wyatt. He was able to produce…they just kind of collaborated and worked
together to make a song that we believe fits the period and the time and I
think they did a great job. I will obviously hear about it and people get to
hear it. Um, but we believe we, uh, they put together a song that that really
fits for the scene and fits the moment of the rise of El and the DeBarge family.
Catch “The Bobby DeBarge Story” airing Saturday, June 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT on TV One.
