One Hit Wondering – Rockwell

One Hit Wondering is a series of columns where I listen to the album of a one hit wonder, and find three songs, other than the hit, that people should hear. 

In December of 1983 every paranoid person in the world was given their personal theme song when Rockwell released “Somebody’s Watching Me.”

The song featured the single most obvious uncredited contribution in music history – Michael Jackson singing the chorus – and Jermaine Jackson was a fellow uncredited performer, singing backing vocals.

There was a reason their names weren’t in the liner notes, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

“Somebody’s Watching Me” rocketed up the chart, thanks in part to a fantastic music video. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, only behind Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose,” and ultimately went gold (over 500k copies sold).

Rockwell quickly became a household name, but what might surprise people is he’d technically been a household name since birth.

Rockwell was born Kennedy William Gordy, son of Motown founder Berry Gordy.

Being the son of the founder of Motown immediately makes you music royalty. It’s also given Rockwell one heck of a family tree.

For modern music fans, you’ve probably danced to the tunes of his half brother, LMFAO’s Redfoo, with the other half of the “Sexy and I Know It” duo, Sky Blu, being Rockwell’s half-nephew.

Rockwell is also the half-brother of Diana Ross’ daughter, Rhonda Ross Kendrick, and in an interview he said he’s a distant relative of Elvis (seventh cousin).

A lot of people would take advantage of having such a famous family, and use their name to create every inroad possible when launching a music career. Rockwell, however, never wanted to leverage his lineage for fame, which is why he opted not to use the Gordy name, and instead chose the performance moniker Rockwell.

In fact, when he was writing and recording “Somebody’s Watching Me” he was actually estranged from his father, and living with his father’s ex-wife, Ray Singleton.

While family ties kept a roof over his head, writing a hit required something bigger – divine intervention.

As Rockwell tells it, for quite some time he wasn’t having much luck in the writing department, and after yet another frustrating battle with a blank piece of paper he decided to ask for some guidance from the man above.

In multiple interviews he’s stated that he prayed to God for the creativity to write a song that would go to the top of the charts, and if it were to happen he would tell the world it was because of God.

Two days later he wrote “Somebody’s Watching Me.”

While he was working on it, Singleton overheard the bones of what would ultimately make up the song, and felt there was potential for it to be a hit.

Rockwell began asking everyone in his life for advice on how to make it the best song possible, and this included longtime friend Michael Jackson.

In a Rolling Stone interview from 2016, Rockwell said Jackson made him perform the song for him a plethora of times, and asked other family members to come into the room to listen, and share their thoughts.

After all was said and done, Michael asked who’d be singing the chorus, to which Rockwell said – why don’t you do it?

Jermaine Jackson (who happens to be Rockwell’s brother-in-law) also wanted to be on the song, and became a backing vocalist, with neither him nor Michael asking to be credited in deference to Rockwell’s desire to not look like he was riding anyone’s coattails.

No Gordy last name. No famous co-sign.

According to Singleton’s 1990 memoir, Berry, Me, and Motown: The Untold Story, actually getting Michael into the studio took some unique planning.

She wrote that they booked studio time without telling him, and Rockwell then picked Michael up, saying they were ready to record, and to come to the studio with him.

Prep time? Apparently that wasn’t necessary for the king of pop.

The plan worked, the song was completed, and ready to be shopped.

Singleton helped Rockwell submit it Motown, and shortly thereafter Berry Gordy’s son was signed to his father’s label without his father even knowing it!

Rockwell would later field a call from his dad, who finally noticed the younger Gordy on his roster, asking him how he ended up getting signed.

With his father now closely watching his career, “Somebody’s Watching Me” was released in December of 1983.

While the timing of right after Christmas seems a bit odd for a song now so closely associated with Halloween, clearly the world was ready to go from Santa, to stalkers in the blink of an eye.

The album of the same name came out a month later.

Unfortunately, while Rockwell may have felt somebody was watching him, people stopped listening to him rather quickly.

After his mega-hit he only had one other song crack the Top 40, with “Obscene Phone Caller” topping out at #35. After two more albums – Captured in 1985, and The Genie in 1986 – he opted to stop chasing a spotlight that seemed to be moving further and further away from him.

Rockwell attempted a comeback in 2016, but rather than finding a second chance at fame, he found himself in legal trouble.

In 2017 he was arrested for allegedly hitting his housekeeper, and the following year he was arrested for allegedly hitting an associate after she approached him demanding payment.

He was on the other side of legal proceedings in 2023 when his company, Rockwell Entertainment Enterprises, sued their former CEO Anita Hawker Thompson, claiming she abused her power, and stole $1.7 million in royalty payments.

She countersued in 2024, claiming she experienced multiple types of abuse while in a relationship with Rockwell.

Rewinding back to when Rockwell turned paranoia into pop perfection, I gave Somebody’s Watching Me a spin, and found three songs, other than the title track, that you should hear.

“Change Your Ways”

An R&B jam that incorporates funk, pop, and rock, “Change Your Ways” probably should’ve been the second single from the album, as it would’ve positioned Rockwell exactly where he wanted to be musically.

It also sounds fantastic.

It’s easy to imagine “Change Your Ways” receiving airplay on Top 40 radio, urban radio, and in every nightclub in America.

“Obscene Phone Caller”

The follow up to “Somebody’s Watching Me,” “Obscene Phone Caller” is a really fun pop song with a few downright hilarious lyrics, such as “If Alexander Bell were alive today / Would he want the telephone to be used this way.”

While the song wasn’t a hit, peaking at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, and being totally lost to time ever since, it’s more than deserving of being resurrected for ‘80s pop playlists.

The video is also pure ‘80s, and I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it until writing this column!

“Wasting Away”

With a deliciously evil synth as the musical backbone of the song (and that’s vaguely similar to something his friend Michael Jackson had a few years earlier), “Wasting Away” is the rare pop song that features an extended guitar solo.

I think this is what Rockwell enjoyed doing – mixing genres in unexpected ways – and it’s unfortunate that a song like “Wasting Away” wasted away as an album cut, rather than being released a single.

Thankfully, we can rescue it, and give it spins in the present.

Until next time, here’s to discovering more great music from one hit wonders!