Bill Champlin

As someone who loves Chicago's 1980s ballads, I owe Bill Champlin more than I usually admit. He founded Sons of Champlin back in 1965 and still plays, then spent 1981 to 2009 in Chicago, lending that soulful, weathered voice to hits like Hard Habit to Break and Look Away. What I admire is his range: he sings, writes, plays keyboards and guitar, and clearly understands a song from the inside out. He never seemed to chase the spotlight, yet his fingerprints are all over some of the era's biggest records. I read him as a true craftsman who served the music above his own fame.

Name (English)

Bill Champlin

Name (Japanese)

ビル・チャンプリン

Reading

びる・ちゃんぷりん

Born

May 21, 1947 (age 79)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Boar

Origin

Oakland, California, United States

Occupation

composer / singer / songwriter / guitarist / musician

High school

Tamalpais High School

• Official sitehttps://www.billchamplin.net
• Xhttps://x.com/billchamplin
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill%20Champlin
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%93%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2761016

Tags

• California
• composer
• singer
• songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.