Although Eric Martin gained his greatest renown fronting the rock quartet Mr. Big, he had already logged years in the music business by the time that group assembled in 1988. Born October 10, 1960, in Long Island, New York, he relocated repeatedly throughout his youth because his father served as an Army officer. Once the family put down roots in San Francisco in 1976, Martin started the band 415 alongside several high-school classmates. The group quickly became a local favorite and, while still unsigned, supported Billy Squier, Molly Hatchet, and the Marshall Tucker Band on stage. After Elektra Records signed them, the act adopted the name Eric Martin Band and delivered its first album, Sucker for a Pretty Face, in 1983. Further prestige gigs followed, including opening slots for Night Ranger and Journey, yet the record met with only modest response and the lineup disbanded in 1985. Martin placed the song “I Can’t Stop the Fire” on the Teachers film soundtrack that same year and issued a self-titled solo album whose single “Information” scraped the lower reaches of the pop charts. In 1988 he teamed with bassist Billy Sheehan, guitarist Paul Gilbert, and drummer Pat Torpey to launch Mr. Big. The musicians’ standing among their peers sparked swift attention, resulting in a 1989 deal with Atlantic Records. Across three albums for the label spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band scored several pop successes—“Just Take My Heart,” a version of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” and the chart-topping “To Be With You”—but never fully converted that momentum into sustained domestic stardom. Devoted audiences in Japan, however, continued to champion the group through the close of the decade. Martin’s follow-up solo project, Somewhere in the Middle, bypassed American stores yet sold briskly in Japan, and in late 2000 Spitfire Records issued I’m Only Fooling Myself.
