Paul Jabara

Actor

Jabara was in the original cast of the stage musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. He took over the role of Frank-N-Furter in the Los Angeles Production of The Rocky Horror Show when Tim Curry left the production to film the movie version in England. He appeared in John Schlesinger's 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, as a hippie handing out pills ("Up or Down?") at the counterculture party, and in Schlesinger's 1975 film The Day of the Locust, where he sang the production number "Hot Voo-Doo". In the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday he played the role of Carl, the lovelorn and nearsighted disco goer, and he also contributed as a singer on two tracks on the original soundtrack album. In 1981 Jabara starred in yet another John Schlesinger film, the comedy Honky Tonk Freeway, as truck driver/songwriter T. J. Tupus, hauling lions and a rhino.

Songwriter and singer

Jabara wrote the book, music, lyrics and starred in an abortive Broadway musical, Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It) which played the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City in 1973. It closed in previews prior to its official opening and was never reviewed by the press. No recording was made of the score, which featured both Jabara's trademark disco music as well as more traditional Broadway-style numbers.

Jabara released his first album, Shut Out, in 1977. Jabara's solo albums on the disco label Casablanca Records include three duets with Donna Summer: "Shut Out" (1977), "Something's Missing (In My Life)" (1978) and "Never Lose Your Sense Of Humor" (1979).

In 1979, Jabara won both Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song performed by Donna Summer, "Last Dance". Jabara's album Paul Jabara & Friends, released in 1983, features guest vocals by a then 20-year-old Whitney Houston. It also includes the song "It's Raining Men". That song was re-recorded several years later by drag supermodel RuPaul and Martha Wash. Wash sang on the original recording as part of the group The Weather Girls.

Some other songs Jabara wrote for others to perform include:

1. "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", a duet by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer which was a Platinum-certified, #1 Billboard hit;
2. "Jinxed!", 1981, written for Bette Midler and her movie of the same name but never commercially released;
3. "Work That Body", Diana Ross' a modest 1982 hit single included on her Platinum album Why Do Fools Fall in Love;
4. "Two Lovers" for Julio Iglesias (1984).

In 2005, a workshop of a musical entitled Last Dance played New York City. It was a musical assembled from Jabara's well known disco songs and told the story of a modern-day teenager who goes back in time to spend one night at Studio 54.

Death

Jabara died from AIDS complications after a long illness in Los Angeles, California at the age of 44 on September 29, 1992. He is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

On June 14, 2014, Jabara was featured in the first gay-themed tour of Green-Wood Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark.

Singles

Studio albums

Soundtracks and compilations